Alan Greenspan Dies at Age 100

Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve who served from August 1987 to January 2006 under four U.S. presidents, died at age 100 due to complications from Parkinson's disease. According to a statement shared with NBC News by his wife Andrea Mitchell, Greenspan passed away on June 22. However, most other sources reported the date as June 23.

The Federal Reserve said its former chair “helped establish the credibility that remains one of the Federal Reserve’s most important assets.” Greenspan presided over an era marked by relatively steady growth and low inflation, known as the Great Moderation. His tenure coincided with significant economic expansions, including one from March 1991 to March 2001, which was described as one of the longest in U.S. history.

According to Fox News, Greenspan significantly expanded the Fed's power during his five four-year terms. He moved the Fed from monetarism and control of the M2 money supply to data dependence and Fed funds targeting. Under his guidance, the Fed became a fast, dependable provider of emergency liquidity, dubbed the “Greenspan put.” The Fed's powers now extend to bond buying, the standing repo facility, and maintaining ample bank reserves that grow with the economy.

During his tenure as Federal Reserve chair, Greenspan routinely insisted that the central bank should not try to deflate financial market bubbles in advance. Instead, it should simply mop up the mess whenever one bursts according to Reuters. This approach saw him preside over two of the biggest bubbles in modern history: the dotcom boom and bust at the turn of the millennium, and a larger, more damaging credit bubble that burst in 2007/2008.

Greenspan's legacy is also linked to the 2008 global financial crisis that occurred shortly after he left office. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission concluded that more than 30 years of deregulation and reliance on self-regulation by financial institutions, championed by Greenspan, had stripped away key safeguards. He later acknowledged having “made a mistake” in believing U.S. banks could effectively regulate themselves prior to the housing market’s collapse.

Greenspan was renowned as a data geek according to Fox News. He used such measures as rail car loadings and tons of production to form his judgment on the appropriate Fed funds rate. In 1996, he cautioned Wall Street with the phrase “irrational exuberance.” Investors listened intently but remained exuberant all the way into the devastating 2000 dot-com crash.

Greenspan's contributions to monetary policy and economic thought were widely recognized. He earned bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in economics from New York University before spending three decades running an economic consulting firm. After retiring from the Fed, he kept himself busy into his 90s by writing books and commenting on economic news.

In January, he joined fellow ex-Fed chairs Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen in condemning what they called an “unprecedented” attempt by the Trump administration to weaken the independence of the U.S.’s central bank. Greenspan is survived by his wife Andrea Mitchell.