Alan Greenspan
American economist Alan Greenspan from 1987 to 2006 served as chairman of the Federal Reserve System, the central 12 banks, each of which serves commercial members in its own district of the United States with broad regulatory powers over the money supply and the credit structure.
He chaired the board of governors. He later worked as a private advisor, made speeches, and provided consulting for firms through his company.
Ronald Reagan first appointed him, and presidents reappointed him at successive four-year intervals; after a record-setting tenure, he retired and at that time relinquished to Ben Bernanke. People lauded Greenspan for his handling of the stock market crash that very shortly occurred on "black Monday," as well as for stewardship of the Internet-driven, "dot-com" economic boom of the 1990s. This expansion culminated in burst of a stock-market bubble in March 2000; a recession followed and began in late 2000 and continued through 2002.
From 2001 for some statements, seen as overstepping the traditional purview of monetary policy, people criticized him, and other persons viewed him as overly supportive of the policies of George Walker Bush, president, until his retirement; Business Week magazine and other entities saw policies that led to a housing bubble. During tenure, people considered Greenspan the leading authority on American domestic economic policy, and his active influence continued afterward.
“There are errors in this book. I do not know where they are. If I did they wouldn't be there. But with close to two hundred thousand words my probabilistic mind tells me some are wrong.”
“We had a bubble in housing.”
“ I know you think you understand what you thought I said but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant”
“Capitalism is based on self-interest and self-esteem; it holds integrity and trustworthiness as cardinal virtues and makes them pay off in the marketplace, thus demanding that men survive by means of virtue, not vices. It is this superlatively moral system that the welfare statists propose to improve upon by means of preventative law, snooping bureaucrats, and the chronic goad of fear.”
“under the gold standard, a free banking system stands as the protector of an economy's stability and balanced growth... The abandonment of the gold standard made it possible for the welfare statists to use the banking system as a means to an unlimited expansion of credit... In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation”
“People do not realize in [the U.S], for example, how tenuous our ties to international energy are. That is, we on a daily basis require continuous flow. If that flow is shut off, it causes catastrophic effects in the industrial world. And it's that which made [Saddam Hussein] far more important to get out than bin Laden.”
“I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.”