Alan Greenspan, the longtime Federal Reserve chairman known as “the Maestro” who became one of the most influential economic policymakers of his era and famously warned of “irrational exuberance,” has died. He was 100.The influential economist died Monday at his home from complications of Parkinson’s Disease, said his wife of 29 years, Andrea Mitchell, the chief Washington correspondent and chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News. “He was a giant of a man who helped shape the U.S. economy for decades under presidents of both parties, but was always honest in acknowledging his mistakes,” Mitchell said in a statement.Greenspan was appointed Fed chairman in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan and held the position — through busts and booms — until retiring in 2006. His tenure was the second longest, four months short of that of William McChesney Martin, who presided over the central bank from 1951 to 1970.The Fed in a statement Monday morning said it noted Greenspan’s passing “with deep sadness” and noted that his “contributions to monetary policy and economic thought left a lasting mark on this institution, on the broader field of economics, and on the country.”During Greenspan’s time at the Fed, stock markets prospered but not without periods of extreme volatility. His loose hand at the central bank is sometimes cited as a cause of the 2008 financial crisis.It was his unusual frankness in one televised speech, on Dec. 5, 1996, that set off a bit of market madness. Discussing the challenges of setting monetary policy, he said:”How do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset values, which then become subject to unexpected and prolonged contract …
