Alan Greenspan, the 13th chairman of the Federal Reserve who served under four presidents, died at age 100.
“Alan passed away at our home this morning at the age of 100 from complications of Parkinson’s Disease,” Andrea Mitchell, Greenspan’s wife and chief Washington correspondent for NBC News, said in a statement.
“He was a giant of a man who helped shape the U.S. economy for decades under presidents of both parties, but was always honest in acknowledging his mistakes,” she said. “To me he was my husband, who shaped my life from our very first date in 1984. He had ‘irrational exuberance’ for baseball, the Washington Commanders, tennis, golf and music, especially jazz,” Mitchell added. “He will be remembered for his brilliance and his kindness. Being his life partner was the joy of my life.”
Greenspan is known for presiding over one of the longest economic expansions in U.S. history. He represented the establishment of a form of free-market economics in government.
After being nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1987 as chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, he was appointed again by Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. Greenspan was notably reappointed by Clinton despite criticism from the Democratic Party due to his free-market beliefs. He served in the Fed for almost 19 years until his final term ended in 2006. His ideas of keeping inflation low and establishing price stability helped create the foundation for the “Great Moderation.” It was during this time that there was a decline in volatility both in GDP growth and inflation. This was done without compromising economic growth or unemployment.
However, Greenspan was criticized for his expansionary monetary policy, known as the “Greenspan put,” which is believed by many to have caused the bursting of the dot-com bubble and paved the way for the 2008 financial crisis. Before Congress in 2008, he admitted he “found a flaw” in his thinking and it “distressed” him. Congress suggested he could have prevented the mortgage crisis, to which Greenspan defended his reputation, saying, “there’s ‘no evidence’ home prices would collapse” and “no regulator was smart enough to foresee the ‘once-in-a-century credit tsunami.’”
For 32 years, Greenspan was chairman and president of Townsend-Greenspan & Co., Inc., an economics consulting firm in NYC. He additionally served under President Gerald Ford from 1974 to 1977 as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. In 1968, he briefly served Richard Nixon as coordinator on domestic policy in the national campaign and served as a member of the Group of Thirty in 1984. After his time with the Fed, he then formed the economic consulting firm Greenspan Associates LLC, where he worked as a private adviser and provided consulting for firms.
Born March 6, 1926, in Washington Heights, New York City, Greenspan was an avid musician. He attended George Washington High School and played both clarinet and saxophone, and upon graduation in 1993, studied clarinet at the Juilliard School for a year. He graduated from New York University with a B.A., an M.A., and a Ph.D. in economics. In 2005, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Commercial Science degree from the same institution. He also studied advanced economics briefly at Columbia University.
Greenspan was also linked with novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand. He was part of Rand’s inner circle, the Ayn Rand Collective, and became a proponent of Objectivism. The two remained friends until her death in 1982.
The author of 10 books received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from George W. Bush in 2005, the highest civilian award in the U.S., and the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service. In 2000, he received the highest French merit of Commander of the Legion of Honour and was knighted as Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire by the United Kingdom in 2002.