Alan Greenspan

1926 – 20??

Alan Greenspan is an American economist who served as chair of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006 under four presidents, presiding over the deregulation of derivatives markets and the systematic refusal of the Fed to use its supervisory authority over the burgeoning subprime-mortgage industry. His public opposition to regulating over-the-counter derivatives, including the 1998 effort to suppress CFTC chair Brooksley Born's proposal for derivatives oversight, helped enable the credit-default-swap exposures that triggered the 2008 financial crisis. In October 2008 he conceded before the House Oversight Committee that he had "found a flaw" in his free-market ideology, an admission economists have described as one of the most consequential mea culpas in modern monetary policy.

Last checked: May 10, 2026, 1:06 PM