Alan Greenspan (born March 6, 1926 in New York City) is an American economist and was the Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States from 1987 to 2006. He currently works as a private advisor and providing consulting for firms through his company, Greenspan Associates LLC.

First appointed Fed chairman by President Ronald Reagan in August 1987, he was reappointed at successive four-year intervals until retiring on January 31, 2006 after the second-longest tenure in the position. He was lauded for his handling of the Black Monday October 19, 1987 stock market crash, which occurred very shortly after he first became chairman, as well as for his stewardship of the Internet-driven "dot-com" economic boom of the 1990s. This expansion eventually ended in a burst in March 2000 leading to an economic downturn, including negative GDP growth in the first quarter of 2001.

After 2001, some congressional leaders and others criticized him, for certain statements they found to overstep the Fed's traditional purview of monetary policy, and for other statements they saw as overly supportive of the policies of President George W. Bush. In 2004 Business Week Magazine criticized his keeping of low interest levels too long and his concurrent praise of sub-prime lending vehicles such as ARMs as leading to a housing bubble. Some, including Nobel Prize-winning economists Joseph E. Stiglitz and Paul Krugman, attribute a large degree of culpability for the devastating late 2000s recession to Greenspan. Stiglitz stated that Greenspan “didn't really believe in regulation; when the excesses of the financial system were noted, (he and others) called for self-regulation — an oxymoron.” Greenspan, according to The New York Times, says he refuses to blame himself. Krugman has expressed his view that of "two guys that I would blame for this crisis" Greenspan would be the firstFact: date=February 2009. However, on April 6, 2005 Greenspan called for a substantial increase in the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: “Appearing before the Senate Banking Committee, the Fed chairman, Alan Greenspan, said the enormous portfolios of the companies - nearly a quarter of the home-mortgage market - posed significant risks to the nation's financial system should either company face significant problems.” Despite this, Greenspan still claims to be a firm believer in free markets. He was also nicknamed "the maestro" after his tenure at the U.S. central bank coincided with a lengthy period of strong economic growth.

All considered, during his tenure Greenspan was the leading authority on American domestic economic and monetary policy, and his active influence continues.

Biography

In the early 1950s, Greenspan began an association with famed novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand that would last until her death in 1982. He wrote for Rand's newsletters and authored several essays in her book Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. Rand stood beside him at his 1974 swearing-in as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers.