Alan Greenspan, longtime Federal Reserve chair, dies at 100
Alan Greenspan, who chaired the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006, died on June 22 at age 100 from complications related to Parkinson’s disease. Appointed by President Ronald Reagan, he served through the administrations of George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, making him one of the most influential economic policymakers of his era.
Greenspan’s tenure began days before the 1987 stock-market crash, which he is credited with containing, and spanned the 1990s expansion, the 1997–98 Asian financial crisis, the dot-com bust and the response to the September 11 attacks. His deliberately opaque public remarks and his confidence in light-touch financial regulation defined a generation of central banking.
His standing fell sharply after the 2008 financial crisis, which critics tied to the low interest rates and deregulatory views he championed. Greenspan himself later conceded he had been wrong to assume banks could adequately self-regulate, telling Congress he had found “a flaw” in his thinking. He is survived by his wife, the NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell.