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The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World
written by Alan Greenspan
Studio : Penguin Press HC, The
by Penguin Press HC, The
Publisher : Penguin Press HC, The
Released : 2007-09-17
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9781594201318
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 272 reviews)
List Price : $35.00
Our Price : $3.99
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Product Description |
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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. |
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Americancivilwar.com Review |
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In the immediate aftermath of September 11, 2001, in his fourteenth year as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Alan Greenspan took part in a very quiet collective effort to ensure that America didn't experience an economic meltdown, taking the rest of the world with it. There was good reason to fear the worst: the stock market crash of October 1987, his first major crisis as Federal Reserve Chairman, coming just weeks after he assumed control, had come much closer than is even today generally known to freezing the financial system and triggering a genuine financial panic. But the most remarkable thing that happened to the economy after 9/11 was...nothing. What in an earlier day would have meant a crippling shock to the system was absorbed astonishingly quickly. After 9/11 Alan Greenspan knew, if he needed any further reinforcement, that we're living in a new world - the world of a global capitalist economy that is vastly more flexible, resilient, open, self-directing, and fast-changing than it was even 20 years ago. It's a world that presents us with enormous new possibilities but also enormous new challenges. The Age of Turbulence is Alan Greenspan's incomparable reckoning with the nature of this new world - how we got here, what we're living through, and what lies over the horizon, for good and for ill-channeled through his own experiences working in the command room of the global economy for longer and with greater effect than any other single living figure. He begins his account on that September 11th morning, but then leaps back to his childhood, and follows the arc of his remarkable life's journey through to his more than 18-year tenure as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, from 1987 to 2006, during a time of transforming change. Alan Greenspan shares the story of his life first simply with an eye toward doing justice to the extraordinary amount of history he has experienced and shaped. But his other goal is to draw readers along the same learning curve he followed, so they accrue a grasp of his own understanding of the underlying dynamics that drive world events. In the second half of the book, having brought us to the present and armed us with the conceptual tools to follow him forward, Dr. Greenspan embarks on a magnificent tour de horizon of the global economy. He reveals the universals of economic growth, delves into the specific facts on the ground in each of the major countries and regions of the world, and explains what the trend-lines of globalization are from here. 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. | | A Timeline of a Remarkable Career | | Mar. 6, 1926 | | Born in New York City | | 1936 | | At 10 sees Roosevelt campaigning; becomes expert on the 1936 Yankees | | 1938 | | Takes up clarinet at 12 | | 1943-44 | | Studies clarinet at Julliard | | Mid 1944 | | Joins Henry Jerome Band | | 1948 | | Graduates (summa cum laude) from New York University. (He later earns a master's in 1950 and a Ph.D. in 1977, also from NYU.) Hired as economic analyst at the Conference Board. | | 1954-74 | | Co-founds Townsend-Greenspan & Co. Inc., an economic consulting firm in New York City. (He returns in 1977.) | | 1974 | | Nominated by President Ford as chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisors. | | 1983 | | Chair of bipartisan National Commission on Social Security Reform. | | June 1, 1987 | | Nominated by President Reagan for Fed Chair. Confirmed by Senate August 3. | | Oct. 19, 1987 | | Only 69 days into Greenspan's term, the Dow drops 508 points and 22%. | | July 10, 1991 | | Nominated by President George H.W. Bush to a second term as Fed Chairman. Later nominated to a third (February 22, 1996) and fourth term (January 4, 2000) by President Clinton. | | Apr. 6, 1997 | | Marries Andrea Mitchell | | May 18, 2004 | | Nominated by President George W. Bush for a fifth term as Fed chairman | | Jan. 31, 2006 | | Completes 18 ½ years at the Fed | | Feb. 1, 2006 | | Forms Greenspan Associates LLC, an economic consulting firm | | | Alan Greenspan's Top 10 Classical and Jazz Favorites
Before Alan Greenspan embarked on his legendary financial career, he studied the clarinet at Julliard and played as a professional jazz musician (while doing tax returns for his bandmates). He chose 10 favorites for us from a lifetime of listening, including:
|  | Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 23
|  | Vivaldi, Complete Cello Concertos
|  | Coleman Hawkins, "Body and Soul"
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Greenspan reveals, but not too much |
This book has three parts. First, Alan Greenspan tells us about his background, schooling, associations, intellectual influences, and business career. Then he tells us about his public life, from unpaid campaign aide to Nixon in 68 to chairman of the Federal Reserve for 18 years, ending in 2006. Finally, he explains his economic thinking, and how he envisions the world through 2030.
The first part is lively. We see him as a young man playing the saxophone professionally in a big band before falling in love with math and later econometrics, while hanging out with people like Ayn Rand. Contrary to what the Times' critic is quoted as saying on the back cover, Alan Greenspan does not gossip. The people we meet in his autobiography are there for their influence on his thinking.
What stands out about his involvement in government is his assessment of the 8 US presidents he interacted with, from Nixon to Bush-43, and the two that come out on top are Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton, the latter for his steady focus on economic policy.
One requirement of his job as chairman of the Federal Reserve was to make long-winded, cagey public pronouncements that would meter out a calculated dose of information without spooking the markets. Greenspan himself calls it "fedspeak," and, while the first two parts of the book are free of it, the third is written in it.
There are paragraphs you have to read several times to understand whether he expects a particular metric to go up or down. "Significantly" and "perceptibly" are used so often you end up skipping over them, and everything is impersonal. Translated into fedspeak, "Chinese workers keep prices down by accepting low wages" becomes "There is disinflationary pressure due to low labor costs." His most quoted phrase "irrational exuberance" is described as just happening, not as anything anybody felt.
If Greenspan has any reservations about the validity of metrics like the GDP, the CPI, or the Dow-Jones, he does not share them with the reader. I wish he had.
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Insightful, Informative & Interesting |
As a staunch advocate of free-market capitalism and deregulation, Greenspan has captured and reasoned the core economic beliefs and values he holds in this book - democracy coupled with capitalism improves quality of life.
The first half of the book took us through Greenspan's journey from a child of being obsessed with keeping baseball statistics, to a Julliard music student and finally becoming the Chairman of FRS. Greepspan touched on his relationships with the Presidents he had served and gave a personal recounts of the crisis he had gone through.
The second half of the book is an analysis on the working of economics and politics in the United States, as well as Russia, South America, China and other countries in Asia. Each page is full of insightful information.
It is especially interesting to read it in the midst of election campaign, financial crisis and economic downturn, when skeptics of free-market, critics of deregulation and talks of protectionism begin to emerge. This book is like someone next to me explaining why we should not let a crisis to discredit the good things that free-market capitalism has brought upon us. |
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Wanna know how the world works? |
The first part -- after the intro -- is a very engaging story of the winding path that lead him to macro economics and his role in trying to keep the wheels from coming off the world's biggest capitalist economy. He does not appear to be trying to inflate his own successes or to blame others for recessions. He has a unique perspective on Washington, D.C. The first part moves right along. It helps you to understand that no one has perfect knowledge or a crystal ball for the U.S. or world economy. Also, that the tools that the Fed has to guide the U.S. economy are not precise.
The second part moves a bit slower as he gives some background on capitalism and covers the economies of specific countries. He still has a unique perspective and great insights, but a U.S. reader does not know the players as well.
I listened to the book and the narrator was very good. He did a great job with Mr. Greenspan's wry humor. I might listen to the first part of the book again. Recommended. If you have never taken a class in macro econ, it might be hard to follow. On the other hand, it is a lot more engaging than a macro textbook, so maybe it is a good place to start. (I took macro in 1975 or '76. In 2008 macro might be sexy.)
If you are in college, by all means take an introductory econ class with the best professor you can find, and then take macro. It is not easy stuff, but you will learn a lot more about how the world really works than you would learn in any other class for the same time and effort. |
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Free Market Capitalism, the engine of global prosperity |
This is an outstanding book by any standard. One might contest and even bitterly oppose some of the policies that Greenspan firmly believes in and passionately advocates in the book, but every page clearly brings out the rich experience and clarity of thought of the Maestro of US central banking.
It is a refreshing feeling to read the pages, written in straight forward and simple text, demystifying the complex world of economics and finance. This is a book for the man on the main street as well as for the analyst on Wall Street.
Greenspan starts with the story of the 9/11 attack, when he gets the news from his security staff and his aircraft had to return to Switzerland, since the US airspace was closed. The role of the Fed, and his position as Chairman of the most important financial institution of the United States of America, to steer the country and the world during such crisis is often underestimated.
Greenspan is a firm believer in the "invisible hand" of free markets, as propounded by Adam Smith in his classic "The Wealth of Nations" over two and a quarter centuries ago. The great Scottish economist would be pleased to read this book that explains how his theory has actually become a reality during the most prosperous times of planet earth.
For critics who are quick to point out that the current sub prime crisis, in most part is a creation of the Fed, I would recommend reading the chapter "Irrational Exuberance". Fed has its limitations, even if it can see overinflated asset prices and a frenzy that is unstoppable in markets that ignore good reasoning. Greed overrides sound economics. Just the reverse happens during the crash. Fear knows no limits and there is a stampede to get out of assets that looked so attractive just a few days ago. The Fed primarily restricts its role to monetary policies of determining interest rates and money supply to guide the economic activity to realistic and sustainable levels, with long term price stability. Markets, as free as they are will correct themselves, and have the resilience to absorb the aberrations. I am not sure of Greenspan's personal views on the recent economic bailout announced by the US Government. It is worthwhile to have an additional chapter in the next edition of this book or perhaps a separate book in itself.
Apart from the core topic of the Fed's role in the US and global economy, Greenspan also covers many other interesting topics that have significant global macroeconomic impact. Energy for example is one such where, the analysis of the current scenario and forecasts for meeting future needs in a cost effective and environmentally sustainable manner makes very good reading.
The deteriorating standards in teaching mathematics in primary and secondary schools in America is a topic that perhaps needs immediate attention if America has to maintain her lead in technology and innovation, the catalysts of productivity and economic growth.
In the final chapter Greenspan tries to forecast the US economy in 2030, based on his deep knowledge of economics and his personal experience as chairman of the Fed for nearly two decades. While he is cautiously optimistic that the US economy would be three fourths larger in 2030, he also us warns of some potential landmines that can disrupt the trajectory.
One may not fully agree with Greenspan, but would certainly begin to appreciate that free market economy, individual liberty and freedom, protection of property rights and democracy would be the nonnegotiable principles that would guide humanity towards global peace and prosperity in the twenty-first century.
Five star rating for every page of the book.
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Tadd Wood's Review of Alan Greenspan's The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World |
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Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R20DIAJDJEAJ0E Tadd Wood's review was made as part of a critical review assignment for the Fall 2008 Honors Colloquium on Creative Destruction at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, taught by Art Diamond. (The course syllabus stated that part of the critical review assignment consisted of the making of a video recording of the review, and the posting of the review to Americancivilwar.) |
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