The Man Who Knew

August 15, 2016
Alan Greenspan, who served as chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006 (the second longest tenure in history), is revealed in this biography to have been neither the fabled maestro who mastered inflation nor the reviled incompetent who failed to anticipate the Great Recession. According to Mallaby (More Money than God), a Financial Times contributing editor, he was a formidable analyst and forecaster, but one whose laissez-faire philosophy allowed unregulated derivatives and “shadow banking” to proliferate and culminate in the 2008 financial crisis. Mallaby also explores one of Greenspan’s less appreciated talents, possibly the one where his real genius lay: a canny instinct for political survival. Mallaby’s treatment of Greenspan’s life is thorough, balanced, and well-informed (due no doubt in part to Greenspan’s cooperation). A less judicious (or more commercially minded) biographer might be tempted to dwell on Greenspan’s recent, and sensational, fall from grace, but Mallaby is careful to give each season of Greenspan’s life its proportional weight. He has written a masterful, detailed portrait of one of the leading economic figures of our time. Agent: Andrew Wylie, Wylie Agency.

The life of perhaps the wonkiest financial theorist to sit at the helm of the Federal Reserve.Alan Greenspan (b. 1926) is infamous for having led the government's chief financial institution in the years when all the perfect-storm conditions were setting up for the economy to tank and for, at least until that collapse, pressing an Ayn Rand-derived libertarian case whenever he could. Financial journalist Mallaby (More Money than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite, 2010, etc.) offers correctives and nuances to this view in this not uncritical portrait. As a math whiz kid with an interest in politics, Greenspan held a cautious contempt for the gray mass culture of the 1950s, "despite his eagerness to share in the prosperity it brought." While he played golf and drove nice cars, sure, he also came to a rightist critique that turned, as Mallaby writes, on his membership in "a fringe group that was one part libertarian salon, two parts strange cult," namely the circle around the Russian egotist Rand and its embrace of a particularly austere brand of logical positivism. Greenspan's ideological purity did not preclude him from mixing in society--he dated Barbara Walters, after all--but it certainly seemed to reinforce an otherworldliness that prized theory over reality. In matters economic, Mallaby writes, Greenspan urged a kind of limited-government, free-market vision that rested uneasily with the close management required of the Fed. In that role, Greenspan took risky positions, including a complacent view of the housing bubble; after all, "subprime lending and mortgage securitization had been around for years without triggering a catastrophe," though catastrophe is what ensued on his watch. Even so, as Mallaby closes by noting, Greenspan was not wholly averse to regulation, made financial calls that were seen as sound at the time, and may not have been able to ward off a crisis that was many years in the making. A well-crafted, thorough biography sure to interest students of the modern economy and financial system. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 1, 2016

Over the course of many decades, respected American economist Alan Greenspan (b. 1926) has been a leading advisor to top government officials, including U.S. presidents. Greenspan's influence has shaped modern monetary and economic policymaking, especially from 1987 to 2006, when he served as chair of the Federal Reserve Bank. In this role, Greenspan determined U.S. monetary policies and was successful at keeping inflation rates low while modern financial systems were continually evolving. Mallaby (Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics, Council on Foreign Relations; More Money Than God) consulted extensively with Greenspan to write this book. To aid in the analysis is an appendix with five graphs entitled "The Greenspan Effect." During economic events such as bubbles bursting, crashes, recessions, and terrorism, Greenspan displayed perseverance, resiliency, and the foresight needed to weather these storms. The biography also delves into his childhood and young adult years and shows how he developed this inner strength along with economic acumen and visionary leadership. VERDICT This engaging work draws readers into an honest examination of how well Greenspan maintained economic stability and circumvented crises.--Caroline Geck, Somerset, NJ

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