Greenspan, Alan

(born March 6, 1926, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. economist and chairman of the board of the Federal Reserve System from August 1987 to January 2006. He received a doctorate from New York University in 1977. Having become a private economic consultant, Greenspan served as chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers under Pres. Gerald Ford. From 1981 to 1983 he chaired the bipartisan National Commission on Social Security Reform. In 1987 Pres. Ronald Reagan appointed him chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, a position he continued to hold under Presidents George Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. As Federal Reserve chairman, he became known for his decisive use of monetary policy in steering the economy between the hazards of inflation and recession.

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