Longtime Fed Chief Alan Greenspan Has Died

Alan Greenspan, who steered US monetary policy for nearly 20 years and became the public face of modern central banking, died Monday at 100, reports CNBC. His wife of 29 years, Andrea Mitchell of NBC News, said he died at home from complications of Parkinson's disease. Appointed in 1987 and serving through 2006 under four presidents from both parties, Greenspan presided over an extended period of economic growth and low inflation, helping cement a market-oriented vision of American capitalism after the Cold War, per the New York Times.

He championed light regulation, embraced the power of technology and global trade, and was widely regarded as the era's dominant economic policymaker. But that same philosophy drew sharp criticism as deregulation, job losses tied to trade, and asset bubbles in stocks and housing later fed doubts about the long-term costs of his approach. Greenspan, known as "the maestro," once famously warned about "irrational exuberance" in the economy.