Alan Greenspan, Architect of Modern American Economy, Dies at 100

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

Former US Federal Reserve Chair, Alan Greenspan, died aged 100 yesterday from complications of Parkinson’s Disease, his wife, Mitchell, an NBC News Correspondent said in a statement.

Mitchell’s statement said Greenspan was “a giant of a man who helped shape the US economy for decades under presidents of both parties, but was always honest in acknowledging his mistakes”.

For nearly 20 years, Alan Greenspan was charged with safeguarding the US economy and keeping the dollar sound. As chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987-2006, a post described as the second most important after the presidency, he presided over the longest sustained period of US economic growth in a generation.

Described as the “God in the machine” of American finance, Greenspan declined all requests for interviews during his time at the Fed. But the media and the money markets hung on his few public statements, and a sign in his office said simply, “the buck starts here”.

But critics argue that an over-reliance on easy credit fuelled the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s and caused the sub-prime mortgage crisis of 2008, a BBC report said.

Greenspan was born in New York City on March 6, 1926. His mother, who worked in a furniture store, brought him up single-handed.

At the age of 19, he enrolled as an economics student at New York University, where he became an apostle of the free market, and eventually found employment as an economic consultant and, later, as a member of the board at JP Morgan.

President Ronald Reagan announced Alan Greenspan as chairman of the Federal Reserve – America’s central bank – in 1987. Having successfully predicted the Eisenhower recession, Greenspan advised Richard Nixon during his successful presidential election campaign in 1968.

He went on to become head of the Council of Economic Advisers. Greenspan later wrote that he found the president to be “sadly paranoid, misanthropic and cynical”, but the economist’s success at curbing inflation impressed Nixon’s successors.

Gerald Ford asked Greenspan to continue at the Council of Economic Advisers and – in the early 1980s – Ronald Reagan chose him to lead an inquiry into the reform of the America’s state pension system.

In August 1987, Reagan promoted him to chairman of the US Federal Reserve, and – for the next two decades – he became one of the most powerful men in the world.

His astute handling of the October 1987 stock market crash, which saw more than 30 per cent wiped off share prices, earned Greenspan many plaudits. His statement of confidence in the underlying economy calmed frayed nerves, and his facilitation of cheap credit helped keep the banks afloat.

It was an approach used again and again, whenever the markets had a crisis. Later dubbed “quantitative easing”, such upheavals included the 1980s savings and loan crisis, the first Gulf War, the Mexican peso crisis and – shortly after he had retired – the global credit crisis in 2008.

Greenspan was renominated as chairman of the Federal Reserve by George H.W. Bush, although the president later complained that a sluggish economic recovery had put paid to his chances of re-election.

Surprisingly, Bill Clinton – a Democratic Party president – also asked the driest of monetarists to stay on in post. But his decision was rewarded as, under Greenspan’s direction, there followed a golden era of growth in the late 1990s.

Greenspan later praised Clinton in his memoir for the president’s “consistent, disciplined focus on long-term economic growth” – while complaining that some Republican administrations simply lost control of public spending.

Away from work, the rather grey-looking banker was a skilled and enthusiastic tennis player.

In 2006, Greenspan stood down as chairman of the Federal Reserve after an unprecedented five terms in office. He was an influential economic voice well into his tenth decade.

In the course of his extraordinary career, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in Washington and an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II.

He remained a sought after economic adviser and media pundit into his late 90s. He was no fan of President Donald Trump’s first administration, describing his populist approach as a “shout of pain” that would do little to raise living standards.

He also criticised Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, calling Brexit the “worst outcome”. He celebrated his centenary in March 2026.