The Man Who Knew: The Life and Times of Alan Greenspan
Sebastian Mallaby, Penguin Press, 781 pages, $40. The former chairman of the Federal Reserve was once a hero. Now Alan Greenspan is being called a villain. In a superb new book, the product of more than five years' research, Sebastian Mallaby — a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations — helps history make up its mind about the man hailed in 2000 by former Sen. Phil Gramm as "the best central banker we have ever had," but now blamed for the financial crisis of 2007-08. Greenspan was a partisan Republican, who worked more closely with the Democrats under Bill Clinton than with either of the Bush administrations. He was a believer in the gold standard, but became the foremost exponent of discretionary monetary policy. The former central banker condemned the creation of the Fed as a disaster, but he became its most dominant chairman. He was a believer in free markets, but participated enthusiastically in bailouts of failed institutions and crisis-hit countries. Mallaby takes readers on a long journey from Greenspan's childhood as the adored and awkward son of a single Jewish mother in New York, through his period as a "sideman" in a jazz band, his professional life as a data-obsessed forecaster, his engagement in Republican politics, his 18 years as chairman of the Federal Reserve and, finally, the post-crisis collapse of his reputation. Through the lens of this stellar career, the book also throws a sharp light on American policy and policymaking over four decades.
ECONOMIST
