- Born
- Height5′ 11″ (1.80 m)
- After school, he began studying economics at New York University, which he completed first with a bachelor's degree (1948) and then a master's degree (1950). In 1977 he subsequently completed his doctorate at the same university. At the beginning of the 1950s, Greenspan began working as a financial advisor in Manhattan. In 1953, William Townsend founded the management consultancy Townsend-Greenspan & Company, of which he became president after the death of his partner in 1958.
Due to his support of US President Richard Nixon in the presidential election campaign, the Republican Greenspan was appointed chairman of the "Council of Economic Advisers" (CEA) in 1974, shortly before Nixon's resignation. As such, he also advised the subsequent President Gerald Ford until 1977. During Jimmy Carter's Democratic presidency, Greenspan returned to his private business activities from 1977 to 1980. Following the inauguration of Republican President Ronald Reagan, he was appointed chairman of the Commission on Social Security Reform, where he made a significant contribution to a bipartisan compromise on Social Security reform from 1981 to 1983.
In 1987, Greenspan became the second most powerful man in the United States when he was nominated as chairman of the Board of Governors, the governing body of the Federal Reserve System. Although the new head of the central bank passed his first test, the stock market crisis of October 1987, he ran into a conflict over interest rate policy with President George Bush, who succeeded him in 1989. Nevertheless, Greenspan was confirmed in his position for a second term in 1991. Despite initial differences that arose between Greenspan and Bill Clinton after the Democratic presidential transition in 1993, the central bank chairman also saw himself confirmed for a third term in office by this president in 1996.
The Clinton and Greenspan constellation led to the longest economic rise in US history. Even after President George W. Bush took office in January 2001, Greenspan's activities were further extended, and he now determines the fate of the US Federal Reserve in his fourth term in office. Greenspan has received several awards, including the Thomas Jefferson Award (1976). In July 2005, Greenspan warned against a further increase in the price of oil, as this would lead to a general increase in prices and thus endanger economic growth.
After 19 years at the helm of the Federal Reserve, Greenspan resigned as President of the US Federal Reserve in January 2006 because his term of office could no longer be continued after five extensions. In the same year, 2006, Greenspan, along with Gordon Brown, received an honorary doctorate from New York University.
Alan Greenspan was married to Joan Mitchell from 1951 to 1952. His second marriage, to NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell, ended in divorce after a few months in 1997.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Christian_Wolfgang_Barth
- SpousesAndrea Mitchell(April 6, 1997 - present)Barbara Joan Mitchell(October 1952 - 1954) (divorced)
- As a young man he played saxophone with Woody Herman and His Orchestra.
- Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank (August 11, 1987 - January 31, 2006).
- In 2007, Forbes Magazine estimated his earnings for the year at $16 million.
- Before studying economics, he attended Juilliard School of Music where he played clarinet and saxophone.
- He is Jewish.
- I was responsible for lots of things. Some good, some bad. But I'm realistic. Given what I knew at the time, could I have done better? Probably. Did I know it at the time? No.
- You can have a financial system with banks making all sorts of horrible loans, but if they're well-capitalized all of the losses go to the shareholders.
- [on discord in the U.S. government, 2013] Clearly the problem is within the Republican Party. If you make every issue uncompromisable, you cannot have laws.
- [on dealing with the recession] Part of the way out is to slow down benefits. Very much to my surprise, benefits are crowding out savings of the society. The data are very clear in that regard.
- [on how the 2008 financial debacle changed his perspective] Most basic economics up to that point was based on the presumption that human beings are rational in that they look after their long-term self-interest. My shock was that what we now call animal spirits has a certain consistency about it. In other words, you can demonstrate that fear is a far more potent emotion than euphoria or greed. That changed the whole way I look at the world.
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