American economist headed the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006 and was a central figure in US economic policy
North American economist Alan Greenspan died this Monday (June 22, 2026) at the age of 100. The cause was Parkinson’s disease, confirmed by his wife, journalist Andrea Mitchell, correspondent for NBC News.“Alan passed away at our home this morning, aged 100, from Parkinson’s disease.”Mitchell said in a statement. The couple had no children.
Greenspan presided over the (Federal Reserve, the American central bank) for almost two decades, from 1987 to 2006. During this period, he accumulated opposite assessments: he was celebrated as the architect of the longest expansion cycle in the American economy and, later, identified as one of the main responsible for the 2008 financial crisis.
The Federal Reserve issued a note this Monday (June 22) lamenting the death of Alan Greenspan. In the text, the Fed highlighted its role in leading United States monetary policy for 18 years, a period marked by economic expansion and phases of financial tension. The institution stated that, under its leadership, an era of greater price stability and strengthening of the central bank’s credibility was consolidated. The statement also highlighted Greenspan’s contribution to the formulation of economic policies and the impact of his legacy on economists and public servants, in addition to expressing condolences to the family.
Trajectory at the Fed
Born in 1926 in Washington Heights, a working-class neighborhood on the northern edge of Manhattan, New York, Greenspan came from a family of Jewish origin. His parents divorced shortly after his birth. Raised by his mother, Rose, a saleswoman, periodically visited his father, Herbert, who worked as a broker on Wall Street.
Before becoming an economist, he studied music at the Juilliard conservatory and played clarinet and saxophone in a band alongside jazz musician Stan Getz. Recognizing his own limits, he abandoned his musical career and entered New York University’s School of Commerce, Accounting and Finance in 1945.
Throughout his academic and professional life, he rejected Keynesianism and became closer to the ideas of writer and philosopher Ayn Rand, defender of individualism and economic liberalism. Convinced defender of “laisser faire”Greenspan wrote in his autobiography “The Age of Turbulence”published in 2007: “I generalized my experiences, which further deepened my appreciation of the competitive free market as a force for good.”
Before arriving at the Fed, he participated in Richard Nixon’s presidential campaign in 1968. He later served as an economic advisor to Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. In 1987, he was invited to replace Paul Volcker as head of the American central bank.
Divided legacy
His first major test at the helm of the Fed came shortly after taking office, with the stock market crash in October 1987. The response was to cut interest rates aggressively, a stance that would become his hallmark in crises: injecting immediate and unrestricted liquidity into the financial market.
The period from 1991 to 2000 consolidated his reputation. Greenspan was considered the great architect of that expansion cycle, the longest in American history up to that time. He received the National Order of the Legion of Honor from the French government and a British knighthood.
The other side of the legacy is darker. Its low interest rate policy encouraged excessive risk-taking by investors. Greenspan himself had coined the expression “irrational exuberance” in 1996 when identifying the bubble in asset prices in the technology sector. Even though it realized the fragility of the market, it did not act to contain the accumulation of risky bets that fueled the real estate bubble and culminated in the 2008 crisis.
In testimony to the American Congress in October 2008, he said he was surprised by the collapse and its impact on his convictions. “The problem here is that something that seemed solidly built, and in fact a fundamental pillar of competition between markets and the free market, gave way. And that was a shock to me.”said Greenspan, dressed in his traditional dark suit and tie.
To his biographer Sebastian Mallaby, author of “The Man Who Knew”released in 2016, Greenspan’s biggest paradox was precisely this: he was able to identify bubbles, but was reluctant to pierce the ones that preceded the financial crisis.
In 2020, at age 94, he still commented on the American economy. He stated that inflation would rise and fiscal loss would come after the covid-19 pandemic. “Good luck to us”he said at the time. That same year, his last book, “Capitalism in America”which revisits the country’s economic history since the arrival of the colonists.
