Alan Greenspan (born 1926) served as the 13th Chair of the United States Federal Reserve from August 1987 to January 2006, a nearly two-decade tenure spanning four presidents. Weeks into his chairmanship he faced the Black Monday crash of October 1987, responding with a public statement affirming the Fed's readiness to supply liquidity to the financial system, a response widely credited with containing the crash's spread into the wider economy. In 1996 he coined the phrase 'irrational exuberance' to warn of speculative excess in asset markets, a warning that proved ineffective at heading off the dot-com bubble that followed. His later legacy is contested: critics have argued that his low-interest-rate policy in the early 2000s fed both the dot-com bubble's aftermath and the housing bubble that led to the 2008 financial crisis.
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Greenspan, weeks into his chairmanship, responded the next morning with a statement affirming the Fed's readiness to supply liquidity, widely credited with containing the crash's spread into the wider economy.
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Additional Source Black Monday (1987) (Wikipedia)Lead section
Dot-com Bubble, Events Greenspan's 1996 'irrational exuberance' speech warned of the speculative climate that produced the bubble; critics later argued his own low-interest-rate policy helped fuel it.
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The same source names Greenspan's orientation as Austrian as well as monetarist; his early career included essays defending the gold standard for Ayn Rand's Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (1966).
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Alongside Paul Volcker, already tied to this school on this atlas; Greenspan's Fed chairmanship is described in the same source as fundamentally monetarist in orientation.
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Alan Greenspan (Wikipedia)
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Alan Greenspan (March 6, 1926 - June 22, 2026) was an American economist who served as the 13th chair of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006.
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Alan Greenspan (March 6, 1926 - June 22, 2026) was an American economist who served as the 13th chair of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006.
Article body, sentence stating his death
at his home in Washington, D.C., on June 22, 2026, at the
In Group: Central Bankers and Monetary Policymakers, Lead
Alan Greenspan (March 6, 1926, June 22, 2026) was an American economist who served as the 13th chair of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006.
View the SourceBlack Monday (1987) (Wikipedia)
Associated With: Black Monday (1987), Lead sectionQuote, Associated With: Black Monday (1987), Lead section
On the morning of October 20, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan made a brief statement: "The Federal Reserve, consistent with its responsibilities as the Nation's central bank, affirmed today its readiness to serve as a source of liquidity to support the economic and financial system".
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