Inthe immediate aftermath of September 11, 2001, in his fourteenth yearas Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Alan Greenspan took part in avery quiet collective effort to ensure that America didn't experiencean economic meltdown, taking the rest of the world with it. There wasgood reason to fear the worst: the stock market crash of October 1987,his first major crisis as Federal Reserve Chairman, coming just weeksafter he assumed control, had come much closer than is even todaygenerally known to freezing the financial system and triggering agenuine financial panic. But the most remarkable thing that happened tothe economy after 9/11 was...nothing. What in an earlier day would havemeant a crippling shock to the system was absorbed astonishinglyquickly.
After 9/11 Alan Greenspan knew, if he needed any furtherreinforcement, that we're living in a new world - the world of a globalcapitalist economy that is vastly more flexible, resilient, open,self-directing, and fast-changing than it was even 20 years ago. It's aworld that presents us with enormous new possibilities but alsoenormous new challenges. The Age of Turbulence is Alan Greenspan'sincomparable reckoning with the nature of this new world - how we gothere, what we're living through, and what lies over the horizon, forgood and for ill-channeled through his own experiences working in thecommand room of the global economy for longer and with greater effectthan any other single living figure. He begins his account on thatSeptember 11th morning, but then leaps back to his childhood, andfollows the arc of his remarkable life's journey through to his morethan 18-year tenure as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, from 1987to 2006, during a time of transforming change.
Alan Greenspanshares the story of his life first simply with an eye toward doingjustice to the extraordinary amount of history he has experienced andshaped. But his other goal is to draw readers along the same learningcurve he followed, so they accrue a grasp of his own understanding ofthe underlying dynamics that drive world events. In the second half ofthe book, having brought us to the present and armed us with theconceptual tools to follow him forward, Dr. Greenspan embarks on amagnificent tour de horizon of the global economy. He reveals theuniversals of economic growth, delves into the specific facts on theground in each of the major countries and regions of the world, andexplains what the trend-lines of globalization are from here. Thedistillation of a life's worth of wisdom and insight into an elegantexpression of a coherent worldview, The Age of Turbulence will stand asAlan Greenspan's personal and intellectual legacy.
About the Author
AlanGreenspan was born in 1926 in the Washington Heights neighborhood ofNew York City. After studying the clarinet at Juilliard and working asa professional musician, he earned his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. inEconomics from New York University. In 1954, he co-founded the economicconsulting firm Townsend-Greenspan & Co. From 1974 to 1977, heserved as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under PresidentGerald Ford. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan appointed him Chairman ofthe Federal Reserve Board, a position he held until his retirement in2006.