文件名称:Alan Greenspan
文件大小:4.72MB
文件格式:PDF
更新时间:2014-02-27 09:37:40
The age of turbulence
The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World is the title of the memoir of former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan, published on September 17, 2007. "The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World," by Alan Greenspan is two books in one. The first half of this work is an autobiographical chronology of the author's life. This portion of the text permits readers a view of the people and circumstances that helped shape and guide Greenspan. From hours of clarinet and saxophone practice as a child, to living room philosophy with Ayn Rand, his major influences are all detailed. The second half of the book retells several major economic events (primarily within the U.S.) that have occurred over the past half century. His economic endeavors and personal observations while serving under various U.S. Presidents are detailed, and often inter-mingled with these events. The latter half of the book also includes an analysis and brief history of major global economic constructs (of yesterday and today), along with a somewhat subjective measure of their success (or lack thereof). The economic systems discussed include Marxist Communism, Populism, and various mutations of Market Capitalism. In Greenspan's view, free market capitalism is the economic approach that "trumps" other forms attempted thus far in human history. His support of Adam Smith's "invisible hand", i.e., people's motivational self-interest, is foundational to his view of creating a successful, growing economy. He discusses the rapid historical growth of the U.S. economy under market capitalism as well as its benefit to foreign adopters, albeit with persistent dis-functions. His support for market capitalism is not without criticism. This includes the anxiety often expressed within a society as "creative destruction" plays out. Greenspan also decries the lack of quality public secondary education for the "masses", particularly in mathematics and the sciences, and how this problem contributes to the divergence of rich and poor within the U.S.