The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World

by Alan Greenspan

Overview

From the bestselling author of The Map and the Territory and Capitalism in America 

The Age Of Turbulence is Alan Greenspan’s incomparable reckoning with the contemporary financial world, channeled through his own experiences working in the command room of the global economy longer and with greater effect than any other single living figure. Following the arc of his remarkable life’s journey through his more than eighteen-year tenure as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board to the present, in the second half of The Age of Turbulence Dr. Greenspan embarks on a magnificent tour d’horizon of the global economy. The distillation of a life’s worth of wisdom and insight into an elegant expression of a coherent worldview, The Age of Turbulence will stand as Alan Greenspan’s personal and intellectual legacy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143114161
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/09/2008
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	608
Sales rank:	532,944
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 10.44(h) x 1.32(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Alan Greenspan was born in 1926 and reared in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. After studying the clarinet at Juilliard and working as a professional musician, he earned his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in economics from New York University. From 1974 to 1977, he served as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Ford. In 1987, President Reagan appointed him chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, a position he held until his retirement in 2006. He is the author of The New York Times bestsellers The Age of Turbulence, The Map and the Territory. and Capitalism in America. 

Hometown:

New York, NY

Date of Birth:

March 6, 1926

Place of Birth:

New York, NY

Education:

B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in Economics from New York University

Table of Contents

Introduction     1
City Kid     19
The Making of an Economist     38
Economics Meets Politics     54
Private Citizen     77
Black Monday     100
The Fall of the Wall     123
A Democrat's Agenda     142
Irrational Exuberance     164
Millennium Fever     182
Downturn     206
The Nation Challenged     226
The Universals of Economic Growth     249
The Modes of Capitalism     267
The Choices That Await China     294
The Tigers and the Elephant     311
Russia's Sharp Elbows     323
Latin America and Populism     334
Current Accounts and Debt     346
Globalization and Regulation     363
The "Conundrum"     377
Education and Income Inequality     392
The World Retires. But Can It Afford To?     409
Corporate Governance     423
The Long-Term Energy Squeeze     437
The Delphic Future     464
Epilogue     507
Acknowledgments     533
A Note on Sources     537
Bibliography     541
Index     545

Editorial Reviews

When Alan Greenspan speaks, the entire world listens. During his 18-year tenure (1987-2006) as Federal Reserve Board chairman, he presided over the American economy; but even after he left that job, his influence remained. When he forecast a U.S. recession in early 2007, stock markets responded with their biggest one-day drop since 9/11. We expect that money watchers will be equally attentive to the nuances of this detailed (640-page) memoir of his astonishing career.

Not only can Greenspan discourse lucidly on economic matters, but he has also written the most unexpectedly charming Washington insider memoir since Katharine Graham's a decade ago. The books are very different. The charm of Graham's was its frankness. The publisher of The Washington Post dished and dissed, starting with her mother. Greenspan is the soul of tact. Far too many people are labeled as his "friend." Even the mildest criticism is prefaced by a statement of high regard and/or followed by an expression of regret. He doesn't lay a glove on his mother. The charm of Greenspan's book is its self-portrait.
—The New York Times

Michael Kinsley

Greenspan's political memoir, which occupies the first half of the book, is readable, lucid and sometimes a bit thin on the dilemmas of monetary policy. In the book's second half, Greenspan the charmer makes way for Greenspan the technician, and the result is a 250-page essay on globalization. His overviews of Russia, India and China say little that is not familiar to attentive readers of the news. But the last chapter makes a powerful and remarkably self-deprecating point. Readers who persevere will feel rewarded.
—The Washington Post

Sebastian Mallaby

Most people will read Greenspan's book for the shock value of his attack on Republicans. But they also will find that Greenspan's well-informed musings offer much more food for thought than the usual government official memoir.
—BusinessWeek

Michael Mandel

The former Fed chairman takes listeners through his career in government and finance and then tackles the big issues of the day, including energy supply and use, global finance, the rise of China and India, the change to a service economy, and what they all mean for the future of the U.S. Greenspan himself reads the introduction; obviously, he is no stranger to public speaking. The bulk of the text is then smoothly offered by Robertson Dean. At a steady pace he covers one complex problem after another with a warm delivery that keeps one listening, perhaps even re-listening. The abridgment is seamless; one wonders what was left out. J.B.G. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

FEB/MAR 08 - AudioFile