Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan passed away at the age of 100

On June 22, Greenspan’s wife, Andrea Mitchell, said he passed away on the same day from complications of Parkinson’s disease. He was appointed by former President Ronald Reagan as Chairman of the US Federal Reserve (Fed) in 1987 and held this position until his retirement in 2006. His tenure was the second longest in Fed history, only 4 months less than William McChesney Martin.

Greenspan is famous for his vague statements, aimed at avoiding market volatility or revealing the Fed’s policy direction. After retiring, he admitted that this was a deliberate strategy.

“I intentionally kept the language confusing, to avoid questions that you know you can’t answer. If you say ‘I won’t answer’ or ‘no comment,’ that in itself is an answer,” he said in a 2007 interview on CNBC“So when a congressman asks a question that I don’t want to answer, I say four or five sentences in increasingly vague directions. The congressman thinks that’s it and I’ve answered and moves on to the next question.”

Greenspan was born in 1926 in New York City, into a Jewish family. His father is a stock broker and financial analyst. He learned to play the clarinet and saxophone, briefly studied at the Juilliard School of Music and performed in a jazz band before earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics from New York University. He completed his doctorate in 1977 at the age of 51.

Before joining the Fed, he served as Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under former President Gerald Ford and Chairman of the National Social Security Reform Committee. Greenspan’s first tenure at the Fed began just before the 1987 financial crisis.

When Wall Street experienced “Black Monday” on October 19, 1987, the Dow Jones index lost 508 points, equivalent to 22.6%, in the sharpest drop in history. The next day, Greenspan announced that the Fed was ready to “provide liquidity to support the economic and financial system”. The Fed also lowered short-term interest rates to encourage banks to continue lending.

This strategy helps stabilize market psychology, avoiding a recession and banking crisis. In just 2 days, Dow Jones regained more than half of the points lost on “Black Monday”.

During his tenure, he led the Fed through two recessions, the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the 1998 Russian debt default, the Long-Term Capital Management rescue package, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack and the dotcom bubble of the late 90s.

Greenspan often prioritized fighting inflation over promoting full employment. Supporters say he presided over the longest period of economic growth in American history. However, critics say his low interest rate policy laid the foundation for the real estate bubble, leading to the 2007-2009 crisis.

After leaving the Fed, he founded the consulting firm Greenspan Associates, wrote his memoirs and continued to comment on economic policy.

He praised former Presidents Ford and Bill Clinton, but criticized former President George W. Bush for excessive public spending and opposed President Donald Trump’s pressure on the Fed during his first term. In 2026, Greenspan and many former Fed and US Treasury officials also signed a statement opposing the criminal investigation targeting former Fed Chairman Jerome Powell.