Alan Greenspan, economist and longtime head of the Federal Reserve, dies at 100 - NBC News

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Alan Greenspan, the influential economist who steered U.S. monetary policy during his five terms as chairman of the Federal Reserve under four presidents, died Monday, according to his wife, NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell.

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Greenspan helped define modern American capitalism from the final years of the Cold War era through the dawn of the digital age. He presided over the Fed during one of the longest economic expansions in U.S. history, a boom stretching from 1991 to 2001. But he was also faulted for decisions that critics say created the conditions for the global financial crisis of 2007-08, such as advocating for deregulation of the financial sector.

Mitchell, the chief Washington correspondent and chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News, announced her husband’s death in a statement. They were married for 29 years.

“Alan passed away at our home this morning at the age of 100 from complications of Parkinson’s disease,” Mitchell said. “He was a giant of a man who helped shape the U.S. economy for decades under presidents of both parties, but was always honest in acknowledging his mistakes,” she said.

“To me he was my husband, who shaped my life from our very first date in 1984. He had ‘irrational exuberance’ for baseball, the Washington Commanders, tennis, golf and music, especially jazz,” Mitchell added. “He will be remembered for his brilliance and his kindness. Being his life partner was the joy of my life.”

In a statement, the Fed extended condolences to Mitchell and said Greenspan’s “contributions to monetary policy and economic thought left a lasting mark on this institution, on the broader field of economics, and on the country.”

Greenspan was born March 6, 1926, in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City, where he showed mathematical acumen from a young age. In his early years, he attended the Juilliard School and played jazz saxophone and clarinet in a band.

He studied economics at New York University, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1948 and a master’s in 1950, and then started work on a doctorate at Columbia University under economist Arthur F. Burns, a future chairman of the Federal Reserve.

In the early 1950s, Greenspan became an associate of the “Atlas Shrugged” writer Ayn Rand, whose “objectivist” philosophy of self-interest and laissez-faire capitalism inspired future generations of political libertarians and conservatives. Greenspan embraced some of her beliefs and paid tribute to her in his 2007 memoir.

“Ayn Rand and I remained close until she died in 1982, and I’m grateful for the influence she had on my life. I was intellectually limited until I met her,” Greenspan wrote in “The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World.”

Greenspan left Columbia in 1953 and joined an economic consulting firm that became known as Townsend-Greenspan Co., Inc. Five years later, he became president and chief owner of the firm.

Greenspan’s initial foray into the political world came in 1967 when he served as an adviser on Richard Nixon’s 1968 presidential campaign. He assisted with Nixon’s transition to the Oval Office but turned down an official role in the administration.

He advised Nixon on an informal basis and, following Nixon’s resignation in 1974, took a position in President Gerald Ford’s administration as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, serving until 1977. He pursued policies that, together with tighter monetary policy from the Paul Volcker-led Federal Reserve, helped reduce inflation from 11% to 6.5%.

In 1977, at the dawn of Jimmy Carter’s presidency, Greenspan returned to his consulting firm in New York and accepted an adjunct professorship at New York University, where he received a Ph.D. in economics.

Greenspan returned to government service when President Ronald Reagan appointed him to fill Volcker’s term as chairman of the Federal Reserve. Greenspan’s nomination was confirmed by the Senate on Aug. 11, 1987, during Reagan’s second term.

On Oct. 19, 1987, or “Black Monday,” when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted by more than 22% — the blue-chip index’s largest one-day percentage fall ever — Greenspan moved swiftly to keep the markets liquid. From then on, Fed moves to support financial markets through episodes of instability became known as the “Greenspan put.”