Biography of Alan Greenspan - Term Paper Example

?  Alan Greenspan Alan Greenspan Alan Greenspan is the current chairman of the US Federal Reserve Board. The board is charged withthe mandate of determining official interest rates. Alan Greenspan is seen as an inflation hawk. He is condemned for concentrating on managing inflation instead of decreasing unemployment levels. In addition, Alan Greenspan’s common remarks can be tremendously strong and can change the direction of financial markets in either way. Alan Greenspan was born in New York in 1926 at the Washington Heights area. Herbert Greenspan, his father, was a Romanian-Jewish descendant and Rose Goldsmith, his mother, was of Hungarian Jewish descendant. Alan Greenspan’s father was employed as a market analyst and stockbroker in New York City. Greenspan was brought up by his mother (Miller, 2011). In 1944, after graduating from Juilliard School, Alan Greenspan was rejected for military service by a draft board in downtown Manhattan. This is because he had a mark on his lung that seemed like tuberculosis. Alan Greenspan had no plans for the future. From an early period, Alan Greenspan had a lot of interest in music. He is also presumed to be well acquitted with mathematical knowledge early in his existence. Alan Greenspan pursued his interest in music by joining the Juilliard School of dance, drama and music. It was at this point that he auditioned to play the clarinet for Henry Jerome’s band. During this time, Alan Greenspan further advanced his talent in music and later on traveled around with Henry Jerome and his music group (Martin, 2000). He got the opportunity to become a member of Henry Jerome’s band, but he did not become a celebrity. During the tour with Henry Jerome and his music group, Alan Greenspan played the clarinet and saxophone. Nevertheless, his talents with numbers made him handle the band member’s taxes and the band’s financial records. He took part in most of the work in the back rather than being on the front line. In the midst of the band members, Alan Greenspan was regarded as the band’s thinker. He was the clarinetist who could also handle the band member’s income tax forms (Rogers, 2004). While the band members went out to have fun on off nights, Alan Greenspan remained in the hotel room reading business books and economics texts. Alan Greenspan went to George Washington High School from 1940 to 1943 when he graduated. He was classmates with John Kemeny. Alongside with classmate Stan Getz, Greenspan played the saxophone and clarinet. He continued studying clarinet from 1943 to 1944 at the Juilliard School. After the end of the war, Alan Greenspan enrolled at New York University for economics. A number of his classmates found it difficult to comprehend concerns relating to economics, but Alan Greenspan was highly interested in equations and numbers. While he was there, Greenspan got two degrees, one in 1948, and a Masters degree in economics in 1950. Later on, at Columbia University, he pursued advanced economics under the guidance of Arthur Burns but dropped out. He failed to complete his PhD at Columbia University because he was not able to afford tuition (Miller, 2011). In the early part of 1950s, Alan Greenspan established an association with the philosopher and famed novelist, Ayn Rand. His wife, Joan Mitchell, introduced him to Rand. Moreover, Rand gave Greenspan the name, Undertaker, because of his reserved demeanor and liking for dark clothing. Although Greenspan was at the outset a logical positivist, he was moved to Objectivism, Rand’s philosophy, by Nathaniel Branden. In the period of 1950s and 1960s, Alan Greenspan became a supporter of Objectivism. He wrote articles for Objective newsletters and contributed a number of essays for Rand’s book. Among the essays he wrote was an essay that supported the gold standard. Rand and Greenspan stood side by side during the Council of Economic Advisers swearing-in, and they remained friends till 1982 when Rand died (Miller, 2011). In 1951, Alan Greenspan met Joan Mitchell; they began dating, and one year later they were married. Nonetheless, their marriage did not last long as they got an annulment 10 months after their marriage. During their marriage, they spent adequate time with Rand. Bond trader, William Townsend, and Alan Greenspan formed a partnership in 1954 and named it Townsend-Greenspan and company. The company acted as an economic consulting company. Alan Greenspan was the company’s chairman and president for 20 years, from 1954 to 1974. 1967 saw Alan Greenspan venture into politics. During this period, he worked as director of domestic policy research for Nixon. Nonetheless, he declined an enduring position in the Nixon management, but continued to offer advice while he continued working at Townsend-Greenspan and company (Ambrose, 1987). When he was pursuing his economic studies at New York University, Alan Greenspan was an employee of Eugene Banks. There, he was managing director at Brown Brothers Harriman, a Wall Street investment bank. During his tenure that lasted from 1948 to 1953, Alan Greenspan worked in the company’s equity research department. During this time, he worked as an economic analyst at an industry and business oriented project in New York City called The National Industrial Conference Board. Before he was picked as the Federal Reserves’ chairperson, from 1955 to 1987, Alan Greenspan was still president and chairman of Townsend-Greenspan and company. This company’s spell was only interfered with by his duty as chairperson of the Council of Economic Advisers while working for Gerald Ford between 1974 and 1977 (Martin, 2000). He described him as an extremely decent politician. Moreover, he worked for all the presidents except Jimmy Carter. In the middle of 1968s, Alan Greenspan agreed to offer his services to Richard Nixon as his director on internal policy in the nomination campaign (Stephen, 1987). In addition, Alan Greenspan had worked as a corporate director for Automatic Data Processing, the Pittston Company, Capital Cities, Mobil Corporation, General Foods, Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, J. P. Morgan & Company, and Aluminium Company of America. He finished his PhD from New York University in 1977 without a need for dissertation. Furthermore, he was one of executives of the Council on Foreign Relations foreign policy establishment from 1982 to 1988. In addition, in 1984, he worked as a member of the Group of Thirty, a prominent Washington-located financial advisory unit. To crown it all, Alan Greenspan worked for a brief period as an economist with the National Industrial Conference Board. It was at this time that he gained experience to form a partnership with William Townsend to open the economic consulting firm, Townsend-Greenspan and company. Townsend-Greenspan and company boasted a large base of customers, for example, J.P Morgan and US Steel. This company enjoyed a period of success, but some findings suggested that Townsend-Greenspan and the company was shaky when Alan Greenspan took an employment position as director of policy research for Nixon’s presidential campaign (Ambrose, 1987). Later on, Alan Greenspan emerged as chairman of Council of Economic Advisers, a firm owned by President Gerald Ford. Afterwards, he returned to Townsend-Greenspan and company. In 1966, Michael Hudson, an American economist, fired Alan Greenspan. This was almost 21 years prior to Alan Greenspan becoming chair of the Federal Reserve. However, the reason Alan Greenspan acquired his PhD from the university without dissertation was because in 1987 Alan Greenspan requested it be removed from the school. This happened when he was appointed chair of the Federal Reserve Board (Martin, 2000). However, a copy and notes of the dissertation that were obtained comprised a debate of escalating housing prices and their impact on customer spending. Moreover, the dissertation predicts a falling house sector. Alan Greenspan wrote a memoir. Most of the content in the memoir was written while he was in the bathtub. In his memoir, Greenspan tried extra hard not to give people access to his inner life. Nonetheless, maybe accidentally, he managed to form an everlasting illustration of himself. He never seemed happier than when investigating economic signs that allowed him make a prediction of everything. He indicated that his prior training was to engross himself in massive detail in the dealings of a part of the world and deduce that information the way a part of the universe exists. He claimed that was the technique he employed throughout his lifetime (Martin, 2000). Alan Greenspan worked as chairman of the National Commission on Social Security Reform from 1981 to 1983. The National Commission on Social Security Reform was charged with the responsibility of saving the social security system from becoming bankrupt. When the head of the Federal Reserve Board gave up work in June 1987, Alan Greenspan was chosen as his substitute. He acknowledged the position. In addition, Townsend-Greenspan and company went out of business after Alan Greenspan and his partner failed to get a buyer (Rogers, 2004). As mentioned earlier, Alan Greenspan occupied a number of impressive positions before he was appointed to the reserve board. Later on, Alan Greenspan married NBC’s chief foreign affairs correspondent, Andrea Mitchell, in 1997, following a 12 year relation. Currently, Alan Greenspan and his wife stay in Palisades, Washington. Alan Greenspan has gained a lot of popularity for doing most of his key works in the morning, while in the bath. References Ambrose, S. (1987). Nixon. New York: Simon & Schuster. Martin, J. (2000). Greenspan: The man behind money. Massachusetts: Perseus Publishing. Miller, R. L. (2011). Economics today (16th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Rogers, J. (2004). Adventure capitalist: The ultimate road trip. New York: Random House. Read More