former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan passes away at 100

Odaily Planet Daily News: Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has passed away at the age of 100. According to NBC News, citing his wife Andrea Mitchell, the network's Chief Foreign Affairs and Chief Washington Correspondent, he died at his home on Monday due to complications from Parkinson's disease.

Greenspan steered the U.S. economy to a record expansion, but his legacy was tarnished by the financial crisis that erupted less than two years after he stepped down. Serving as Federal Reserve Chairman for 18 years (from 1987 to his retirement in early 2006), he oversaw a period of stock market boom and low unemployment. He was more widely regarded than the four presidents he served under or the seven Treasury secretaries he worked with as a "maestro" of the economy. Roger Ferguson, who served as Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1999 to 2006, stated, "Alan Greenspan should be remembered as one of the greatest central bankers globally in the latter half of the 20th century, not just within the Fed." Ferguson noted that Greenspan "was among the first to recognize the impact of technology on U.S. productivity growth, enabling the economy to expand faster than expected without stoking inflation." (Jin Shi)