The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World by Penguin Press HC, The

Title: The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World

Manufacturer: Penguin Press HC, The
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The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World by Penguin Press HC, The

Read this book.

This book is well worth reading. It is the easiest read for an important nonfiction work that I can ever remember reading. It is difficult to put this book down. The first part of the book is an autobiography/History of Economics In Greenspan's lifetime. The last chapter contains his predictions.

The autobiographical part is well presented and interesting. Mr. Greenspan seems neither especially modest nor especially self-serving. But he doesn't seem to bare his soul, unless he is quite a simple man. Which may be true. He portrays for the reader a man who is a mathematician. A mathematician who diligently works to master Economics with statistics. He doesn't ever seem to really believe that Economics is at its core, a social science and not a hard science.

You should not mistake simplicity for shallowness however, there can be great depth in simplicity. Mr. Greenspan presents complicated ideas in a simple, straightforward way that makes them clear although fairly devoid of emotion or social context. The question one is left with is if he has been so powerful and durable in our country's upper crust because he is the reliable, guileless expert economist or if he is indeed a more subtle, politically aware expert who knows how to present everything in such a neutral manner that no one can object.

One example of this is the so-called surplus that happened at the end of Clinton's term of office. The Federal Government borrowed more money than it needed to balance the budget (from the Social Security trust fund) and named the excess borrowed money a surplus. Purists would argue that borrowing more money than you need, naming it a surplus, and spending it is absurd twisting of words and financially short sighted. Mr.Greenspan holds that the SS trust fund is in reality not a trust fund, that it is just another tax revenue stream for Congress to do with as it will. From the simplest practical viewpoint this is true. Congress has taken the Social Security fund moneys and spent them on whatever occurred to them for decades. From an unemotional, mathematical point of view there is no trust fund because no one treats it as such. For a political realist, words on paper mean nothing when preempted by the reality of unalterable government actions. So is he dispassionately describing the current situation or is Mr.Greenspan the savvy politician, knowing that both the Republicans and Democrats would like to claim they were responsible for the surplus and it would not do to publicly puncture both their balloons? He has stripped away any (politically charged) description of our current process and talks of possibilities for now that are devoid of any history or reason for how we arrived at now. No one in power will be offended or feel the need to defend themselves by his writing. No one will find any insight into avoiding the current financial ills of our country either.

In the last chapter Mr. Greenspan presents his predictions. His knowledge and expertise and style make very good reading again. Mr. Greenspan very neatly identifies the important forces acting on our future. Even if you know nothing of Economics you will be well prepared to understand this chapter after reading his book up to here. He also demonstrates the truism that if you laid all the world's economists end to end, they still would not reach a conclusion. He in fact has no conclusion, merely possibilities. He does mention, but glosses over the greatest weakness in America's economic future in such a way that you may not even notice it. It may be that it is no coincidence that it is a process that is not easily understood using statistics nor one that is correctable without actually identifying the groups that are causing the problem. The first is his only tool, while the second he can't bring himself to do.

This neutrality is really the weakness of this very interesting book and of his closing predictions. The Oracle of Delphi once told Croesus, a powerful king, that if he invaded his neighbor a great empire would be destroyed. She just left out whose empire would be destroyed. Croesus made the obvious error of misinterpretation. Mr. Greenspan's neutrality leaves the reader with no more information then that king whose ambition blinded him to the different interpretations possible for that vague prediction.

In a way the book helps you see the mindset that no one is ever responsible, no decision is ever faulty, there is only the "What are we going to do now?" that weakens the modern American scene. The parties and groups in Government and business vie to be the next great answer to our problems without ever acknowledging their part in their creation.

So readable, so engrossing, don't miss this book.

The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World by Penguin Press HC, The

Excellent and educational

I am not of the opinion that Greenspan was infallible as the Fed chairman, but his book is very interesting. In particular, the analysis of the many presidents he worked with was fascinating. He also provides a world economics lesson by breaking down the economy of each of the leading economic nations. A great book for people who like history and economics.

The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World by Penguin Press HC, The

Surprisingly entertaining

I thought I would find Mr. Greenspan's book too intellectually dense to enjoy as entertainment, but I have been pleasantly surprised by his articulate, erudite (but not pedantic) style and apparent sincerity. Greenspan comes across not as a political idealogue, but as an economics wonk fascinated by living through the "real time" testing of complex theories. He describes his and his wonky cohorts' constant reviewing, rehashing and revising of economic theory to lead the Federal Reserve as part vocation, part avocation.

I was an economics major in college many years ago, but never really excelled at it -- directing my future in a different, less theory-based direction. However, I remember just enough of the basics to recognize Greenspan's references to things such as econometrics, and to truly appreciate his perspective on historical economic events through the seventies, eighties, nineties and 2000s as I have lived them.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone with an interest in a nearly apolitical telling of recent U.S. history and current events.

The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World by Penguin Press HC, The

Economic Theory can be Fun

Greenspan, artfully turns basic and global economic theory into a sometimes tolerable, often delightful text. Dr. Greenspan's personal recollections on some of our most hated and loved politicians and other significant "characters" are voyeuristic and humorous.

The common threads between Greenspan and Einstein are fascinating, although Greenspan appears to have a bit more tolerance and grace,but then, Greenspan is a politician, while Einstein was decidedly not.

Not always an easy read, but stay with it.

The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World by Penguin Press HC, The

Greenspan: Architect of the Next Great Depression

THE AGE OF TURBULENCE is a fine book the same way Hitler's MEIN KAMPF is a fine book: It probes deeply into the history and deranged theories of a power-mad dictator.

The early stages of the book offer a fascinating account of Greenspan's childhood, growing up with a single mother in Depression-era New York City. The details here are interesting from a sociological perspective, even if the boy in question did not grow up to become the most powerful and ruinous money master in the history of civilization. The story of his path to prominence is also quite interesting and very well written.

But the later stages of the book is where it falls off. Here Greenspan offers insights into his thoroughly rebuked pseudo-Keynesian monetary and fiscal theories. Worse yet, this arch-dictator of the world's greatest monetary fascism has the audacity to call himself a "libertarian" and a "capitalist." He's far from it.

I would not discourage anyone from reading this book, however, one should not accept Greenspan's central-planning theorems disguised as "free-market" capitalism at face value. This book will teach the uninformed reader a lot about the subject in college they CALL "economics," but nothing of REAL economics. For that, I recommend the works of Murray Rothbard, most notably, his THE CASE AGAINST THE FED.

The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World by Penguin Press HC, The

Product Description

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.

The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World by Penguin Press HC, The

Book Description

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"