Alan Greenspan

Alan Greenspan was born on March 6, 1926, in Washington Heights, New York City. After his parents divorced he was raised by his mother, Rose Goldsmith, in the household of maternal grandparents born in Russia. His father, Herbert Greenspan, worked as a stockbroker. As a teenager he attended George Washington High School, graduating in 1943, and developed a lasting love of numbers through baseball statistics. Music defined his youth as much as math. He played clarinet and saxophone, studied at Juilliard, and briefly toured with swing bands before choosing economics.

Greenspan earned a B.A. in economics summa cum laude from New York University in 1948 and an M.A. in 1950. He began doctoral work at Columbia University under Arthur Burns but left as consulting work grew. In 1977 NYU awarded him a Ph.D. in economics. Barron's later reported that his dissertation discussed housing prices and anticipated a housing bubble, though the university copy was removed at his request when he joined the Fed.

From 1948 to 1953 Greenspan worked as an analyst at the National Industrial Conference Board. He then led Townsend-Greenspan & Co. for decades as an economic consultant. He chaired the Council of Economic Advisers under President Gerald Ford (1974-1977). In August 1987 President Ronald Reagan made him Fed chair. Over nearly 19 years he managed Black Monday, the 1990s expansion, international financial contagion, the tech bust, and the post-9/11 economy. He left office on January 31, 2006, and later ran Greenspan Associates while writing and commenting on policy.

Greenspan married artist Joan Mitchell in 1952; the marriage was annulled in 1953. He later dated broadcaster Barbara Walters. In 1997 he married NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell after a courtship that began in the mid-1980s. Mitchell later joked that his elliptical marriage proposals were hard to parse. Away from policy he loved jazz, tennis, golf, baseball, and the Washington Commanders. He said he did some of his best thinking in long baths.

Early in his career Greenspan was influenced by Ayn Rand's Objectivism and free-market arguments. He favored limited regulation of financial markets and trusted that firms' self-interest would constrain excessive risk. The 2008 crisis forced a public reckoning with that assumption. He remained a Republican who nonetheless worked closely with Democratic President Bill Clinton, later praising Clinton's fiscal discipline while criticizing some Republican administrations for losing control of spending. In later years he criticized Brexit and commented on the pace of interest-rate changes under later administrations.

Supporters credit Greenspan with anchoring Fed credibility, recognizing mid-1990s productivity gains, and responding quickly to market shocks. Critics argue the Greenspan put and prolonged low rates encouraged speculation, and that light regulation of mortgages and derivatives left the system exposed. The 2011 Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission cited decades of deregulation associated with his views as stripping away safeguards. The Fed's 2026 statement said his analytical discipline helped establish institutional credibility that endures.

Greenspan received France's Legion of Honor (2000), an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II (2002), and the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush (2005). He held numerous honorary degrees and was widely treated as a celebrity economist during the late 1990s boom.

His principal memoir is The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World (2007). He also published later books on capitalism and economic forecasting. Television interviews and congressional testimony, including a widely cited 60 Minutes archive appearance and Aspen Institute and Council on Foreign Relations conversations, kept him in public debate long after he left the Fed.

Critics blamed easy-money policy and regulatory forbearance for contributing to the dot-com bubble and the mid-2000s housing boom that preceded the global financial crisis. Democratic leaders also accused him of politicizing the Fed by supporting Social Security privatization and tax cuts. Greenspan disputed that short-term rates alone caused the housing bubble, pointing instead to a global savings glut and long-term rate dynamics, but he conceded in 2008 that his faith in market self-regulation had been shaken.

Alan Greenspan died on June 22, 2026, at his home in Washington, D.C., at age 100. Andrea Mitchell said the cause was complications of Parkinson's disease. The Federal Reserve issued a statement of deep sadness, and tributes from news organizations and public officials followed worldwide. He had marked his 100th birthday in March 2026.