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
I thought it was an exceptionally good study,
Lower budget deficits are the surest and most direct way to increase national saving. Higher national saving would help to lower real interest rates, spurring spending on capital goods so as to put cutting-edge technology in the hands of more American workers,
We've come a long way through this adjustment process and we're still standing and that's good news, ... is still not doing well but (is) far better given what has happened than I would have forecast six, eight, nine months ago.
The good news is that evidence is becoming more persuasive that our electronic infrastructure will be ready for the Century Date Change, ... The public's understanding of the degree of our Y2K readiness also has grown, and fears of widespread disruptions around the CDC appear to be waning, though we are not as yet home free.
I wasn't able to do much reading when I was chairman of the Reserve Board. The workload was too large, and the luxury of reading was not available to me. So I caught up a good deal when I left office.
I've been around long enough to know that a good deal of the praise heaped on me I had nothing to do with. The only thing I did object to was the fact that where the criticism was actually wrong. Did it bother me? Of course it bothered me. But I've been around long enough to have ups and downs. So you get over it.
Despite the disruptions of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma, economic activity appears to be expanding at a reasonably good pace as we head into 2006.
Keeping out competitively priced goods would materially lower our standard of living.
Overall, the household sector seems to be in good shape,
But it is clear that, for the time being at least, the increase in spending on consumer goods and houses has come down several notches, albeit from very high levels.
Hopefully his successor, whoever it is, will demonstrate that the good policy we've had over the past 18 years is as much due to the evolution of the institution as it is to Greenspan per se.
A good part of this expansion is a direct function of the decline in real equity premiums. That cannot go on indefinitely.
The likelihood is that we shall be seeing some lower prices on imported goods as a result of the difficulties in Asia, ... But they will not permanently suppress the risks inherent in the tightened labor markets.
Inflationary pressures will be reasonably well contained, so long as productivity is moving at a reasonably good clip,