Alan Greenspan
Alan Greenspan
Alan Greenspanis an American economist who served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States from 1987 to 2006. He currently works as a private adviser and provides consulting for firms through his company, Greenspan Associates LLC. First appointed Federal Reserve 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...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEconomist
Date of Birth6 March 1926
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
Notwithstanding the demonstrable advantages of the new international financial system, the Mexican financial breakdown in late 1994 and, of course, the most recent episodes in East Asia and elsewhere, have raised questions about the inherent stability of this new system,
only the peripheral winds of the Asian crisis.
The remarkable American economy, whose roots are still not conclusively known, and the Asian crises that caught us by surprise, among other humbling experiences, have made policy-makers particularly sensitive to how fast the world can shift beneath our feet,
Although the tendency in recent months toward stabilization in the East Asian economies is encouraging, clearly those economies are not out of the woods, as recent events attest,
the possibility that the forces from Asia might damp activity and prices by more than is desirable.
Before the crisis broke, there was little reason to question the three decades of phenomenally solid East Asian economic growth, largely financed through the banking system, so long as the rapidly expanding economies and bank credit kept the ratio of non-performing loans to total bank assets low,
We are seeing the first signs of erosion at the edges, especially in manufacturing. That's a signal that the effects of East Asia and Russia on our financial system are increasingly a factor.
The extent and pace of recovery of Asian economies currently experiencing a severe downturn will have important ramifications for prices of energy and other commodities, the strength of the dollar, and competitive conditions on world product markets,
Inflationary pressures will be reasonably well contained, so long as productivity is moving at a reasonably good clip,
Indications that the extent of the application of existing technology is still far from complete, plus potential benefits derived from continuing synergies, support a distinct possibility that total productivity growth rates will remain high or even increase further,
Indeed, our goal, in responding to the complexity of current economic forces, is to extend the expansion by containing imbalances and avoiding the very recession that would complete a business cycle,
Indeed only such highly liquid portfolios would be consistent with (government-sponsored enterprises') mission of providing primary mortgage market liquidity during a crisis, particularly a financial crisis,
Indeed, only such highly liquid portfolios would be consistent with (government-sponsored enterprises') mission of providing primary mortgage market liquidity during a crisis, particularly a financial crisis,
in more vulnerable countries where (the principal bank's) guarantee is more likely to be called upon and (where) cost might deter some aberrant borrowing.