Alan Greenspan leaves behind historic tenure, passes at age 100

Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve who guided U.S. monetary policy for 18-and-a-half years under four presidents, died Monday at age 100. According to NBC News, his wife, Andrea Mitchell, confirmed the death was due to complications from Parkinson’s disease. He served under Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, becoming the second-longest-serving Fed chair in history.

Greenspan helped define modern American capitalism from the Cold War’s end through the digital age. He presided over the longest economic expansion in U.S. history, from 1991 to 2001, marked by globalization and the rise of the internet, per NBC News.

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A complicated legacy

While praised for steering the economy through crises like the 1987 stock crash and the 2001 terrorist attacks, Greenspan faced criticism for advocating financial sector deregulation, which critics say fueled the 2008 financial crisis, NBC News added in its report. The Fed acknowledged his “lasting mark” on monetary policy and economic thought.

“He was a giant of a man who helped shape the U.S. economy for decades under presidents of both parties, but was always honest in acknowledging his mistakes,” Mitchell said, as reported by CNN. Known affectionately as “the Maestro,” NBC News noted, Greenspan also warned of “irrational exuberance” in stock markets.

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Born in New York in 1926, he studied economics at New York University and played jazz saxophone early in life. His association with Ayn Rand influenced his embrace of laissez-faire capitalism, NBC News confirmed.

The death of Greenspan, a towering figure in American finance, leaves a legacy that still shapes debates over regulation and central-bank power.