On Oct. 23, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan admitted, under stern questioning by lawmakers, that he made mistakes during his long tenure as Fed chairman that may have contributed to the current recession. That's a far cry from the esteem Greenspan received in Congress during the boom years.
On January 31, 2006, the 18-year-old financial bigwig ended his curtain call at the age of 79. Greenspan, known as the "Financial Ivy League", is a magical figure in people's minds who "sneezes and it rains all over the world". He created the miracle of a "zero-inflation" economy in the Clinton era. A US media said in the 1996 presidential election: "It doesn't matter who is the president, as long as Allen is the chairman of the Federal Reserve."
At present, the US economy is in the quagmire of the financial crisis, and people blame Greenspan for the root cause. But Greenspan was a man, not a god, after all. His life was full of humanity, and the US economic recession could not cover up Greenspan's glory as a great financier.
Big Choice
On March 6, 1926, Greenspan was born in New York. When he was very young, Greenspan's parents divorced and he was raised by his mother. Greenspan's blood runs through a talent inherited from his father and mother: mathematics and music.
Greenspan's father was a very good stockbroker, skilled in calculations and logical reasoning. Innate advantages and nurture made Greenspan fascinated by numbers, and often devoted himself to studying numismatics, so he emerged at a young age and showed extraordinary financial talents. Greenspan grew up fascinated by what others saw as boring numbers games. When he was about 5 years old, his mother who opened a retail store asked him to try adding and subtracting three-digit numbers. Little Greenspan blurted it out without hesitation, and it was accurate. Whenever there are many customers in the retail store, Little Greenspan, who is not yet tall at the counter, will stand by and help his mother settle accounts. Many customers come to buy things for Little Greenspan, watching this "prodigy". .
Mother can sing and dance, under her influence, Greenspan is also particularly sensitive to music. When he was still in the cradle, when he heard the rhythm of the music, he became restless, humming something in his mouth, which made his parents laugh. His original dream was to be a professional musician. While studying at George Washington Middle School, he started playing the clarinet, and after only a month he was doing pretty well. Whenever there is a school art performance, Greenspan's clarinet performance is the last show on the stage, attracting applause. He later entered the prestigious Juilliard School of Music in New York. At that time, jazz and jitba were all the rage in the United States, and Greenspan followed the trend and became part of Henry Jerm's hard-hitting jazz band. Show off.
In the band, Greenspan's mathematical talent came into play. As the band's bookkeeper, Greenspan often uses his self-taught financial and tax knowledge to help his teammates fill out tax returns. However, the band runs around all year round and has no fixed place to live. Since the teammates are all the best professional musicians in the area, Greenspan's musical talent is hidden and inconspicuous, and he feels very inferior. He began to doubt the future of his musical career. After all, "mixing" in the band is not a long-term solution, and Greenspan realizes that he is only a "small skill" in music, and it is difficult to be promising, so he decisively seeks a new life path from another talent of his own. In the intermission of the show, he always hides in the corner and nibbling on tomes of economics and finance. A year after the tour, he enrolled in economics at New York University's business school, and economics, like a decent jacket, fit Greenspan, graduating with a BA in economics, summa cum laude, in 1948 and 1950. Master's degree, and later went to Columbia University for further studies.
It was Greenspan's wise and decisive choice back then. He grasped the direction of fate at the most critical moment in his life, and thus went from mediocrity to glory. There is a saying
that "real people don't show their faces". Greenspan always wears a dark suit, black-rimmed glasses, and a white shirt with an out of fashion thin knot tie. His hair is sparse and his face is wrinkled.
, The preface and the afterword are inconsistent, and his face is always depressed.
But it is this humble old man who has successfully dealt with several economic risks during his 18 years as chairman of the Federal Reserve. From 1989 to 1992, when the U.S. economy encountered a credit crisis, the Federal Reserve led by Greenspan resolutely tightened credit, raised the standard of "sufficient capital", and injected a large amount of funds into the market to ensure economic recovery; from 1990 to 1991, The Gulf War caused oil prices to rise. Greenspan, regardless of offending the Bush administration, resolutely implemented the policy of tightening monetary policy to maintain the long-term financial stability of the country; from 1994 to 1995, the US economy entered a period of benign growth, but Greenspan raised interest rates 7 times to restrain the Inflation strengthens the economic stamina; from 1997 to 1998, the Asian economy fell into a crisis, which triggered financial turmoil in Latin America and spread to the world. Greenspan used interest rate leverage to cleverly escape this disaster. A series of big money made him enjoy high prestige in the United States and even the international financial circles. People are amazed at his genius in managing money, and often ask questions like this: What magic wand is this wise and wise old man using?
In this regard, Greenspan's answer is amazing: "In the bathtub, the bathtub bubbles out wisdom." He wakes up around 6:00 every morning, and then spends an hour and a half in the bathtub reading various economic and financial materials, sometimes He even started to write something, so the lecture notes he brought to the office were often soggy. This habit was developed in the 1970s. At that time, his back was a little uncomfortable, and he found that soaking in the steaming bathtub for a long time in the early morning could not only relieve the pain, but also have quick thinking and wisdom. He even told friends that his IQ was 20 points higher at 6 in the morning than at 6 at night.
Greenspan pays close attention to the smallest details of how the economy works, such as inventory levels, product delivery times, and so on. One of his friends once put it slightly exaggeratedly: "Greenspan is the kind of person who knows how many grub bolts are on a 1964 Chevrolet, and he also knows that if three of them are removed, the What impact will it have on the national economy?"
Big Strategy
Greenspan was not only economically savvy, but also politically scheming. When he first became active in Washington politics more than a decade ago, he had fully tapped his social potential and impressed Ford. People are in the arena, unable to help themselves, and Greenspan, who is not familiar with flattering horses, has to make great efforts to study "relationships", try his best to win the appreciation of prominent figures, and treat powerful people as "as caring and considerate as patients in hospital beds". ". He didn't even know how to hold a tennis racket at first, but when he realized that the tennis court in the White House is a gathering place for power games, he trained hard and finally became a good tennis player. I met a lot of political officials and communicated while playing, and the racket in my hand became a bargaining chip for official public relations.
Greenspan was never under the control of anyone and took no favors. His vision goes far beyond politicians, who see as far as the next election, and Greenspan's aim is for maximum sustainable growth.
Excellent financial strategy made Greenspan both sides of the board as the chairman of the Federal Reserve. From Reagan to Bush Sr., Clinton to Bush Jr., whether it is the Republican Party or the Democratic Party, no matter how turbulent the officialdom in Washington is and the personnel turbulence, Greenspan is able to handle the donkey-elephant battle between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party with ease and please both sides. It's a "tumbler".
Big character The rise and fall of the
US stock market is closely related to Greenspan. Interestingly, however, as the biggest "maker" on Wall Street, Greenspan never speculated in stocks. The Fed chairman's annual salary is $136,700, and he has released his earnings every year since he took office 17 years ago. He was found to have never bought stocks, choosing instead to invest in short-term government bonds with little risk, and currently holds about $2.4 million in Treasuries.
Someone made an account for Greenspan: Because he does not speculate in stocks, the wealth management expert loses at least more than 200,000 US dollars a year. But Greenspan doesn't care about those losses, and his spokesman said Greenspan's sensible investment fits his personality. He is very rational when investing, lending money to the country as much as possible and doing more for the country. At the same time, he didn't want people to feel that he was "near the water". Greenspan's clean political style is also an important cornerstone of his ten-year reign.
In addition, Greenspan's salary as Fed chairman is much less than when he is a private economic adviser, and the annual salary is much lower than that of his peers - German Bundesbank President Tittmeier and European Central Bank President Duisenberg, so Although Greenspan has been engaged in finance all his life, his total personal assets are just over 10 million US dollars.
Greenspan is beloved by the American people for his superhuman talent, ability and character.
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