Alen Greenspand

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Alan Greenspan: The Money Man

At 71 years of age and on his second marriage, Republican Alan Greenspan is

often referred to as the second most powerful man in the United States. Born on March

6, 1926, to a stockbroker and a full time homemaker, who later divorced during the crash

of 1929, Greenspan amazed his parents and their friends very early on with his ability to

solve mathematical puzzles in his head. His mother would bring him out to her friends

and have him solve these problems just to impress her them. However, this gift was not

to be fully realized until later in Greenspan’s life; after studying music, his passion at the

Julliard School. Alan was smitten with the musical world and learned to play the

saxophone and clarinet so well that his first professional job was with a swing band

(Martin 1-12).

At 19, after realizing he didn’t have what it took to make it in the music business,

Greenspan became an economics student at New York University and received a

PhD many years later without a dissertation and then went on to Columbia University’s

doctoral program where he dropped out due to a cash flow problem. He then began his

professional career as an economist and soon, with bond trader William Townsend,

founded his own economic consulting firm, New York’s Townsend-Greenspan & Co.

Inc. His company did well for several years until Greenspan decided to dissolve it to

work towards his ultimate goal as Fed chairman at the Federal Reserve (Alan G).

Greenspan reached a stepping-stone towards his goal in the summer of 1974,

when Richard Nixon asked him to become the chairman of the President’s Council of

Economics Advisors. This position was one of the most highly recognized posts in

government for an economist, but the decision was a hard one for Greenspan. He was

afraid of new wage and price controls, however he was console...