Alan Greenspan, the towering figure who shaped global monetary policy for nearly two decades as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, has died at 100. His passing marks the end of an era for those who remember the ‘Maestro’ guiding markets through boom, bust, and the dot-com bubble. To Britain, his legacy is a cocktail of admiration and unease.
Greenspan’s low interest rates and deregulatory zeal fuelled the Anglo-American financial model we adopted in the City of London. Yet his hands-off approach also sowed seeds of the 2008 crisis, a trauma that reshaped our own banking sector and public trust. As we reflect on his life, we must ask: was he a visionary or a cautionary tale for our digital age?
In an era of AI-driven markets and quantum uncertainty, Greenspan’s faith in human instinct feels almost quaint. But his core lesson endures: unshackled innovation must be balanced with ethical guardrails, lest the algorithms run wild.