Alan Greenspan

It is a pleasure to have an opportunity to salute Alan Greenspan as he prepares to leave the Federal Reserve after outstanding leadership during 18 often-tumultuous years. In its 92-year history, the Federal Reserve has had 12 chairmen, 7 in the modern era. In my judgment Alan Greenspan stands in the front rank. Lately, I am often asked by journalists to discuss his record. At first, I mentioned some of the obvious accomplishments such as maintaining a long expansion penetrated by two brief and mild recessions with low or falling inflation. Per capita consumption in constant dollars increased 44 percent during the first 17 years of his chairmanship, and 27 million additional workers found employment.