From his bio. Spent most of his time in Republican administrations. He may not be a real Republican; the following article describes him as a "soft spoken Republican". :)
What was astounding to me was the bit at the end: he is married to Andrea Mitchell!
ALAN GREENSPAN knows a recession when he sees one. The cautious chief of the Federal Reserve Board, or Fed, was a child through the Depression, became President Gerald Ford's top economic adviser during the economic woes of the mid-'70s, and ascended to his current post mere months before the stock market crash of 1987. It stands to reason that Greenspan, often dubbed the second most powerful man in America, is obsessed with balancing the U.S. economy between boom and bust.
The son of a stockbroker and retail worker, Greenspan displayed a gift for figures at a young age, often impressing his mother's cronies by solving mathematical puzzles in his head. After high school, Greenspan studied music at the Juilliard School and accepted his first real job as a clarinet and saxophone player in a swing band. Notes ceded to numbers when, at 19, he enrolled as an economics student at New York University. In the early '50s, Greenspan, short on cash, dropped out of a doctoral program at Columbia University to become a professional economist. (NYU later conferred his Ph.D. in 1977 without a dissertation.)
With bond trader William Townsend he founded an economic consulting firm, New York's Townsend- Greenspan & Co. Inc., which prospered until 1987 when Greenspan dissolved it to pursue his career at the Fed. Greenspan, a soft-spoken Republican, first tasted public life as director of policy research for Richard Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign. President Ford appointed Greenspan chairman of his Council of Economic Advisers. He took a breather from government during the Carter administration and returned to Washington in 1987, when President Ronald Reagan nominated him as Fed chairman.
Greenspan has stayed at that post through four presidencies—testament to his economic and political acumen—with his fourth four-year term ending in 2004. As Fed chief, he controls U.S. monetary policy by influencing short-term interest rates and, in turn, the cost of credit to American companies and consumers. Because almost everything he says can affect the lives of shoppers and investors alike, Greenspan selects his words and actions with great discretion. Many Beltway operators from both parties take comfort in Greenspan's calming prudence and preference for subtle, not sweeping, economic adjustments. When not pondering policy, Greenspan spends time with his second wife, NBC journalist Andrea Mitchell, whom he married in April 1997. He enjoys classical music, tennis, the writings of Ayn Rand, and reportedly writes all his speeches in the bathtub. |
