Alan Greenspan, the economist who ran the Federal Reserve for nearly two decades and became one of the most powerful financial figures of the 20th century, has died.
At his peak, Greenspan was lauded — by some economists and market watchers — as possibly the best central banker in history. That wasn’t an idle compliment. Through the 1990s boom, the dot-com bust, and the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, he steered U.S. monetary policy with a deftness that made him something close to untouchable in Washington and on Wall Street. Presidents deferred to him. Markets moved on his words — sometimes on a single adjective buried in congressional testimony.
The financial crisis
Then came 2008. The collapse of the U.S. housing market triggered the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, and Greenspan’s long tenure — and the low-interest-rate, light-regulation philosophy that defined it — came under brutal scrutiny. Critics argued he’d kept rates too low for too long and looked the other way while exotic mortgage products turned the financial system into a pressure cooker. His reputation didn’t survive the reckoning intact.
In a 2008 congressional hearing, Greenspan himself acknowledged a flaw in his worldview — that he’d assumed financial institutions would police their own risk out of self-interest. He called that a mistake. It was a remarkable admission from a man who’d spent decades as the nation’s chief advocate for market discipline.
Greenspan chaired the Fed from 1987 to 2006, appointed first by President Ronald Reagan and reappointed by three successive presidents. He was 99 years old, born on March 6, 1926, in New York City.
No cause of death was immediately confirmed, and no details on services were announced as of Sunday, June 22, 2026.
