Alan Greenspan

Alan Greenspan, KBE ( born March 6, 1926 in New York) is an American economist. He was 11 August 1987 to 31 January 2006 Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve ( Federal Reserve System).

Education and personal life

Greenspan was born into a Jewish family of Hungarian immigrants and wanted to be a musician first. In the Bronx, his birth city of New York visited the son of a stockbroker, who was also a cantor at a synagogue, the famous Academy of Music Juilliard School. His instruments were the saxophone and the clarinet, with whom he emulated his idol Benny Goodman. 1944 and 1945 he toured with the band by Henry Jerome.

In 1951 he married Joan Mitchell. The marriage with her ​​was in 1952 but divorced again.

From 1944, he completed a national economic studies, which he completed in 1950 at New York University with a master's degree. He then studied briefly at Columbia University. In 1977 he received his PhD at New York University. In 2005 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the same university.

With 71 years Greenspan married the former NBC White House correspondent, Andrea Mitchell.

Greenspan's financial political career began in 1953 with the consulting company " Townsend - Greenspan & Co". In 1967, he supported Richard Nixon during the election campaign, the President appointed him in 1974 as Chief of the Council of Economic Advisers.

Meanwhile, he believes that tax cuts do not necessarily promote economic growth and calls for the return of the tax rebates of 2001 and 2003 under the Bush administration.

Alan Greenspan is an avowed atheist. He was a friend of Ayn Rand, one of America 's most influential political writers.

Chairman of the Federal Reserve System

From 11 August 1987 until 31 January 2006, he was Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve Board. Greenspan achieved an international reputation in this position. He has been working under four U.S. presidents. He turned always towards a fixed rule binding of monetary policy, including his well-known saying: " Monetary policy is not applied science, but art "

His appointment as head of the U.S. central bank was made by the Republican President Ronald Reagan. Also of Reagan's successors, George Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush Greenspan was highly regarded.

During Greenspan's tenure, there was a series of economic crises: 1987 suffered the USA under the consequences of a major stock market crash in 1990 Greenspan resisted pressure from Bush Sr. to conduct an expansionary monetary policy.. Instead, Greenspan remained at a level aimed at price stability course, which is why you made ​​him partly responsible for the mid-1990 began in the USA mild recession that was fueled by the second Gulf War.

With Bush's successor Clinton Greenspan worked together goal-oriented since 1993; while Clinton ran a focused on fiscal consolidation, fiscal restraint, managed by the Fed to give an expansionary monetary policy with a pulse to economic development.

On the initiative of Greenspan and the ECB, the central banks of the U.S., Japan, Canada and the EU intervened in the early days of the euro. In particular, by supporting purchases of 22 September 2000, recovered the euro, which had dropped below 0.85 U.S. dollars to 90 U.S. cents. Together with the ECB and the Bank of Japan intervened in the Fed under Greenspan also in the aftermath of 11 September 2001.

In 2001, in the U.S. case against Greenspan on suspicion of gold price manipulation was pending, but that was for the bankers without consequences.

The extension of Greenspan's fifth term as Chairman ended on 31 January 2006. Appointed as his successor George W. Bush Ben Bernanke.

Consultant

On 13 August 2007 it was announced that Alan Greenspan will be working for the German bank as a consultant in the field of investment banking.

Since January 2008, Greenspan is an advisor to the Paulson & Co. hedge fund company. It was agreed that Greenspan will work exclusively for the Paulson & Co. hedge fund as a consultant.

Views on the Fed Chairman

Greenspan stepped down as president of the central bank to retire on January 31, 2006. For his successor was nominated on 24 October 2005 Ben Bernanke. For this occasion many interpretations of the "Legend" Greenspan could be heard in the world of finance; among others, reported Global iNet News / Berlin Kontor:

" Alan Greenspan (79 ), the most powerful central banker in the world, is leaving after 18 years out of office. If this legendary head of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank stepped up to the microphone, holding not only bankers, business leaders, foreign exchange dealers, shareholders and small investors their breath, but also the state leaders of the world. Every time this, mogul of international finance ' remarked publicly shook the monetary earthquake needle on the Richter scale of the globalized financial world. "

The trend- analysis and measures that Greenspan - as they say - often conceived during relaxation in the bath, fascinated and influenced not only the U.S. economy but the global financial systems. Greenspan, the former chairman called the Banking Committee in the U.S. Congress Phil Gramm "the greatest central banker of all time", in fact, acted as a director of all speculation and exchange rates.

Due to its policy of low interest rates Greenspan was also called "interest - Eliminator ". So writes Berlin office: " Greenspan always followed only his own inspirations and beliefs - and not infrequently even dominated politics in the White House, in Congress and in the international financial markets. "

In many cases, Greenspan was considered a secret most powerful man in the world, as often already his ( deliberately vague held ) hints move the stock exchanges in motion. His performances took his time as Fed Chairman worldwide attention, especially during the meeting dates, in which the new monetary policy steps should be discussed and decided. In order to determine the amount of interest adjustment and the consequences for the financial market in advance of such meetings, invented the stock market commentators briefcases indicator.

In addition to the overwhelmingly positive opinions about the " Greenspan era " but in many cases also more critical voices were last loud which pointed inter alia to the joint responsibility Greenspan for the speculative price increases in stock and real estate sector due to the policy of cheap money. Thus grew under his leadership, for example, the M3 money supply of 3,614 trillion U.S. dollars at the time of taking office to 10,250 trillion U.S. dollars in the end of his term of office, ie by 283.62 %.

In addition, he was criticized for his often nebulous, unclear statements, Eng. also called Green Speak, which led many economists, according to unnecessary uncertainty in the financial markets. However, Greenspan defended this strategy because he saw only by surprising the market interventions of the Central Bank Opportunities for monetary stimulus. About himself he said: " I ​​know that you believe you know what I said in your view. But I'm not sure if they realize that what you heard is not that's what I mean. " One and a half years after his retirement from office Alan Greenspan admitted to have his audience out on purpose on the ice. When he was asked a question to which he could not answer or would he fall in crude sentence structures. His listeners would have thought then that he had said something incredibly profound things and thus answered her question.

In the Neue Zürcher Zeitung on 26 October 2008, noted that Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman, Greenspan was called in September 2008 as the main responsible for the financial crisis. James K. Galbraith has called Greenspan's paper on the crisis of 9 March 2010 as garbage and complained that not a single time the word " responsibility" vorkäme. Greenspan has since been heard as a witness before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.

Hedonic calculation of inflation and growth

Alan Greenspan is an advocate of hedonic calculation of inflation and growth. The hedonic calculation refers - in addition to the price change - the change in quality of a basket with a. The hedonic calculation leads, in contrast to methods with pure price changes, to lower values ​​for inflation and to higher values ​​for growth. Increases such as the computing power of a computer at the same price by 50 %, this results in a price decrease of 33 % and a growth of 50 %.

In his 2013 published work " The Map and the Territory " he proves that in the U.S. the huge rise in social spending has displaced one -to-one savings.

Honors

2005 gave U.S. President George W. Bush Greenspan Medal of Freedom ( " Presidential Medal of Freedom" ), the highest civilian award in the United States.

Quote

On February 22, 2002 after the bankruptcy of Enron Greenspan expressed as acting head of the U.S. central bank in a crisis meeting the more frequently quoted in the media saying: " Capitalism is not working " ( "Capitalism does not work" ).

Swell