Overview
- His wife, NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell, confirmed on Monday that Greenspan died at age 100 at home from complications of Parkinson’s disease.
- Greenspan led the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006 for nearly 19 years and the Fed released a formal statement praising his contributions to monetary policy and institutional credibility.
- Early in his tenure he moved quickly to supply liquidity after the October 1987 market crash and later coined the phrase “irrational exuberance,” actions that helped establish the expectation the Fed would intervene in deep market stress.
- Critics say his long periods of low interest rates and resistance to tighter rules for derivatives and mortgages helped fuel the housing bubble that contributed to the 2007–2008 financial crisis, a point Greenspan acknowledged in 2008 when he told Congress he had erred in trusting market self‑regulation.
- Global central bankers and major news outlets are issuing obituaries and statements that both praise his crisis management and reexamine the costs of his policies, a discussion that could influence future U.S. debates on central‑bank transparency and financial regulation.