From 1987 to 2006, Alan Greenspan served five terms as chairman of the Federal Reserve. That means that four different presidents — Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush — considered him fit to dictate the monetary policy of the world’s biggest economy. As such, Greenspan acted as one of the most influential civil servants worldwide for 18 years. During those years, Americans could count on Greenspan — a Republican — to have an opinion.
His passionate defense of the privatization of Social Security and tax cuts earned him criticism for politicizing the office. But his productive tenure remained untarnished through the end. While he retired in January 2006, Greenspan continued to work in the field as a consultant through his firm Greenspan Associates, LLC, in Washington, D.C. In May 2007, Pacific Investment Management Co. brought on Greenspan as a special consultant. Three months later, he became a senior advisor for Deutsche Bank.
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The following year, Greenspan also joined the hedge-fund firm Paulson & Co. as an advisor. No one was surprised he was still sought-after following his retirement. “He is a very great source of everything economic,” Richard Yamarone, an economist at Argus Research Corp, told the Associated Press in 2005. “It would be imprudent not to tap that resource.” For close to two decades, Greenspan maintained his status as “Maestro” of the U.S. economy, as Bob Woodward titled his book about him. But that changed shortly after his retirement.
