Alan Greenspan: American finance ‘God’ dies at 100

Alan Greenspan also known as “God in the machine” of the US economy died at the age of 100 on Monday.


The Former US Federal Reserve chair’s wife confirmed the death while a statement reported by her employer said that Alan died from complications of Parkinson’s Disease.


Mitchell’s statement said Greenspan was “a giant of a man who helped shape the US economy for decades under presidents of both parties, but was always honest in acknowledging his mistakes”.

 For nearly 20 years, Alan Greenspan was charged with safeguarding the US economy and keeping the dollar sound.

 As chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006, a post described as the second most important after the presidency, he presided over the longest sustained period of US economic growth in a generation.

 Described as the “God in the machine” of American finance, Greenspan declined all requests for interviews during his time at the Fed.

 But the media and the money markets hung on his few public statements, and a sign in his office said simply, “the buck starts here”.

 But critics argue that an over-reliance on easy credit fuelled the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s and caused the sub-prime mortgage crisis of 2008.