Alan Greenspan Quotes


I set out to understand how we got it so wrong and what can we learn from the fact that we did.


Context

Greenspan, and his huge staff of economists all completely missed predicting the Meltdown of 2008. They had the power to regulate many of the banks and other companies that got into trouble in the Great Recession. However, all the financiers and economists of the banks of America with their staffs, not only missed the predictions but recommended the disastrous course of activity that almost destroyed the nation’s economy. Only a handful of economists predicted the Meltdown. Those few were not connected with any of the banks or any of the government bank regulators which had become so much like each other as the result of the revolving door, that there was little difference in their thinking.


Citations

Alan Greenspan, Chairman, Federal Reserve Board, Referring to the pre-2008 Federal Reserve Board Analyses & Policies, The Map and the Territory, 2013

Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations

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Alan Greenspan
Alan Greenspan
  • Born: March 6, 1926
  • Nationality: American
  • Profession: Economist

Alan Greenspan is an American economist who served five terms as the 13th Chair of the Federal Reserve of the United States from 1987 to 2006. He 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 (behind William McChesney Martin).