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Usually ships in 1 business days | | Only 4 left in stock, order soon! | | | | | | The Age Of Turbulence is Alan Greenspan’s incomparable reckoning with the contemporary financial world, channeled through his own experiences working in the command room of the global economy longer and with greater effect than any other single living figure. Following the arc of his remarkable life’s journey through his more than eighteen-year tenure as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board to the present, in the second half of The Age of Turbulence Dr. Greenspan embarks on a magnificent tour d’horizon of the global economy. 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. | | | |
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| | Product Details | | Author: | Alan Greenspan | | Hardcover: | 544 pages | | Publisher: | Penguin Press HC, The | | Publication Date: | September 17, 2007 | | ISBN: | 1594201315 | | Package Length: | 9.4 inches | | Package Width: | 6.2 inches | | Package Height: | 1.8 inches | | Package Weight: | 2.2 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 293 reviews |
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 Great book! Aug 17, 2010
The Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan provides a unique look into the role of a Federal Reserve Chairman and also serves as Alan Greenspan's treatise on the modern economy. The first half of the book is a history of Greenspan's time as Chairman of the Federal Reserve board and talks about the various struggles he encouraged during his time from the political bashing of the fed to the stock bubble and its implications for Federal Reserve policy. This section of the book is from Greenspan's perspective and should be read with some caution but overall he was the man in charge and seeing his firsthand account of what happened is invaluable. Whether a reader agrees with his personal economic philosophy or not there is no denying that this account will be one of the most useful for those trying to understand the market failure of the late 90's/early 2000's.
The second half of this book is Greenspan's views on the various economic problems confronting the world and what is leading to the Age of Turbulence. From a review of epic changes in technology to a worldwide look through the eyes of China, Asia, Russia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Europe the reader is taken on a tour around the globe looking at economic problems of all sorts. Greenspan then returns to the United States economy looking at issues of productivity, the age gap and the current financial crisis. Overall this is a well thought out analysis from someone who had access to voluminous amounts of data. This is a must read for those who are interested in economic history or those looking for current economic philosophy.
2 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Chairman of Financial Politburo. Real "blast from Soviet past" Apr 09, 2010
History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce. Those immortal Marx's words are fully applicable to Chairman Greenspan.
The book actually reads as a typical Soviet Politburo memoir, partially ghost written, mostly hagiographic, and filled with spicy animosity toward former peers. Nixon's portrait (the latter shrewdly did not appoint Greenspan to the coveted position) in the book is actually quite revealing about Greeenspan's personality.
Like Bolshevik's theories, neo-classical economic theories Greenspan preached have the power of shaping (and distorting) the economics of the country. In this sense Greenspan, like members of Soviet Politburo, played a destructive role by forcing the economy of the USA (mal)adapt to a superficially attractive but unrealistic economic doctrine.
The extremes and absurdities of financialization of the economy, government interference with the stock market, as well as financial market deregulation of the last twenty years neatly correspond to the extremes of Bolsheviks policies after they came to power in perfect "tragedy vs. farce" fashion. As in "extremes meet" cases, the promise of brighter economic future brought lemmings on board and (later) off the cliff (extreme centralization and restoration of feudal rule under smoke screen of leash for banksters and parasitic rents in case of Bolshevism, extreme deregulation and restoration of the "Law of Jungles" under smoke screen of "free markets" propaganda in case of Greenspan).
Greenspan's commonality with members of Soviet Politburo runs deeper then the merely superficial similarities such as being over the age of 60 when elected to the position (Greenspan was 61 when he was appointed by Reagan as Fed Chairman).
First of all, as revealed by the book, the personality of Greenspan pretty well resembles the personality of members of Soviet Politburo. His failure is also very similar and is an apt manifestation of the failure of a broader class of economic messianism and a lack of humility in the face of the complexity of the economic world, coupled with an aggressive, quasi-platonic desire to shape the world according to the particular economic ideal.
Among striking commonalities:
- Compulsive, almost sociopathic careerism. Ability to change views on the spot when it is conductive to career objectives (Greenspan's views on gold is one example). Relentless desire to preserve his position at all costs. Actually this typical "member of the Politburo" trait was pretty skillfully exploited by the Bush administration and colored the presentation of actions of Bush administration (famous "Iraq war was about oil" statement) and whitewashing of his own actions in promoting Bush tax cut in the book.
- Extreme, sociopathic evasiveness and hypocrisy; the tremendous ability and skill in diverting the blame for blunders from his own person. As for hypocrisy, here is a man preaching laissez-faire who repeatedly intervened in the market to save the wealthiest Wall Street players. Like members of Soviet Politburo who send their wives for shopping in Paris and sons and daughters to study in Oxford, Greenspan actually used his laissez-faire clichés as a smokescreen to mask his real intentions, the same way the Politburo members used communistic slogans. Another analogy is that Greenspan used Ayn Rand positivism philosophy in the typical way Marxism was used in the USSR by aspiring candidates to Politburo: as a magical "Sesame" word that opens the door to high office for ruthless careerists. Actually Ayn Rand positivism has a lot of common with Marxism: while Marxism presents working class as a hero and demonize capitalism, her heroic version of Capitalism includes demonizing socialism or even the milk of human kindness. Ayn Rand's capitalist entrepreneurs are depicted in the idealized fashion uncanny similar to "the fearless fighters for the right of working people" in communist literature. You need just to replace the key hero of The Fountainhead with the director of Soviet factory to get Onion's style parody on Soviet literature with its still characters and artificial dialogues. This was also the way I see "free market" fundamentalism ideology was used by Greenspan, who in reality was promoter of corporatism, or at least state capitalism. Like Politburo members, he was far from "true believer" -- rather he was simply a careerist, serving ideas that he never fully personally supported himself. In the same venue his association with Ann Rand was just "marriage of convenience", an association useful for promoting his career and we will read too much into it if we assume that he really shared her positivist views. Similarly it was a popular saying in the USSR that there was fewer Marxists in the Soviet Politburo then in any Montmartre cafe at any time of the day.
- The same brilliant Machiavellian-style political abilities. Greenspan book reveals him as a masterful political tactician, a real master of Washington politics chess. At the same time much like members of the Soviet Politburo he was pretty average in his specialty, a shallow economist unable to read or accurately forecast the markets trends (a standing joke in his private practice) despised by some talented hedge fund managers like Jim Rogers.
- Enjoyment and active pursuit of the role of the "Grand Inquisitor" of economic profession suppressing any dissent in best Soviet Politburo style ( the Brooksley Born and Alan Blinder stories are two well known examples and just the tip of the iceberg).
- A pathological desire for admiration, narcissism. Greenspan suffers from common with members of the Soviet Politburo inclination toward cult of personality. And his desire for admiration includes equally common with the Politburo members uncanny ability to make pretty destructive for the country moves to ease political pressure. For example, Greenspan did not enjoy being slapped by the Senate Subcommittee for the slow recovery of the economy after the dot-com crash, and that might partially explain devastating for the country Fed policies he adopted to stimulate the economy, such as keeping the interest rate too low for too long and, as a result, inflating enormous housing bubble. Even now at his pretty advanced age, Greenspan is relentless in trying to protect and "interpret" his legacy in the most favorable way possible.
- Like the Soviet Politburo, Greenspan tried to sell ghosts of the past as robins from the coming bright future. Much like Bolshevism was a neo-feudal doctrine (in a very deep sense, revenge of feudalism over capitalism ;-) with the fig leaf of Marxism on top, Greenspan libertarianism was in reality just a variant of old "might-makes-right" philosophy of jungle capitalism, the brutal, direct dictatorship of big corporations and the rich with the fig leaf of "free market" philosophy on top ( what is so "free market" in centrally controlling price of money and suppressing interest rates ? ). In no way Greenspan was/is a proponent of "free market", he is a proponent of unlimited freedom of action for big financial corporations: socialism for rich. Actually a variant of socialism for "nomenklatura" that Soviet Politburo practiced for 70+ years. Now one can reread Animal Farm for really striking depiction of similarities of Soviet system and socialism for rich dominated by financial oligarchy.
Manipulation of statistics to exaggerate growth and make his policies more acceptable ( the rate of inflation in one such measures in Greenspan's case: Like Arthur Burns he promoted the completely unscientific "core inflation" ). He also was susceptible to the "Cult of GDP" so typical for the Soviet Politburo.
All this makes reading Greenspan's memoir much like reading a former Soviet Politburo members memoir. Somewhat fascinating but equally disturbing.
One amusing detail is that he himself is blissfully unaware of the stark similarities of his position to the position of members of the Soviet Politburo (the most powerful unelected official in the country) which makes reading his assessment of Soviet economic nomenklatura really funny and worth the price of admission. Actually it's just one cent in the used hardcover market, which just about the fair market price of a typical memoir of any discredited Soviet Politburo member.
All in all the book is about the "triumph and tragedy" of a pretty talented person who betrayed everything to achieve career success. A cautionary tale about the value of moderation in personal pursuits and desires as well as importance of self-knowledge in personal success and happiness.
 An important book perhaps but outdated now Mar 11, 2010
This book is a great book for understanding old economic thought, the thought that led the US and other world economies into the Great Recession. Dr. Greenspan and this older school of economic thought are being discredited now and newer thinking is replacing the old ways. But the book is important as an addition to the history of economic thought and should definitely be read in that context.
One of the best books on economic theories affecting investment Dec 13, 2009
Firstly I bought the kindle release for $5.95 and I received the book in less than 1 minute. It is certainly cheaper than the book edition of $11.05 plus postage to Australia (about $6) and waiting for one month.
Greenspan talked openly about his life from youth to his life as Fed Chairman and I welcomed his openness. This gives good insight on what happened during the economic crisis and boom in the past 20+ years.
He than talks about Capitalism versus communism, what is happening to Europe, China, India, Russia, and Latin America. This gives me good insight on what to watch out when investing in these countries.
Why oil prices went up and down, Impact of Current Account Deficit, Globalisalistion which makes wider income gap, Education improvement that is needed in primary and secondary education all makes good sense. Finally he talks about ways to tackle the Baby Boomers retirement problems, corporate ethic and offer a glimpse in the future on the world economies in 2030.
I am using ETF to invest in Macro markets instead of buying individual stocks. This book is invaluable on my style of investment.
"I Was Wrong", It's Still a Good Book Nov 20, 2009
"I Was Wrong" But It's Still a Good Book
Even after the senate hearings on the economic collapse and the PBS documentary on Brooksley Born, I still think this is a good book. There is so much in this book, it warrants a second reading.
The title of this book reflects the economic impact that the internet and the computer revolution brought to the world. Efficiencies skyrocketed during the 90's and the economic analysis had to change to track this change in economic productivity. The speed, quantity, and quality of information of the "internet world" have changed the way societies can economically organize themselves. Another contributing factor to our age of turbulence is the China factor. The size and technological timing of an economic player the world has never seen before has had a dramatic impact on our lives to date and will continue to affect us for a long time to come. Truly a remarkable time we are living in. Greenspan explains these drivers and how we have to adapt to the changing world.
The book gives you an applied explanation from one that is pulling the levers on the economy through monitory policy and interest rates. It is a good counter balance to those that are outside of the decision making process that state arguments about the practice of economics that affect the quality of our daily lives.
The first part of the book provides background on who Greenspan is and the influences in his life as he grew up and became a practicing economist. His competitive nature, the environment he was growing up in, his family background.
I like the description and the form that Greenspan uses to describe his life and the experiences he has had to highlight the different roles that economists can take in life.
Greenspan recalls in the book many experiences with presidents and powerful decision makers. His experience with different administrations from Ford to Bush W. gives the reader an interesting incite into each of these personalities that made important decisions over the 30+ years.
Greenspan's first term as Fed chairman started with the decisions of Black Monday in October 1987. This chapter reads like an economic suspense novel based on real life decisions. The suspenseful drama of trying to maintain financial confidence in the economy was for me was a "page turner", one of my favorite chapters. This chapter illustrates the "irrationality" the market can demonstrate that requires human intervention to minimize its disturbing effect on our lives.
Like most books that deal with business cycles, the phrase "cascade of defaults" comes up in the chapter on "Black Monday". I just finished the "Rethinking the Great Depression" by Gene Smiley and the same phenomenon was one of the central themes in that book.
The book takes us through the fall of the Berlin Wall and the international consequences of the changes of Eastern Block countries and arguments around ways of organizing societies. Capitalism is the best method according to Greenspan and I agree. I don't agree with his view on regulation. Even with the flaws of the application of regulation, I believe innovative applications can evolve over time and have to be ongoing to keep the market as efficient as possible.
Considering the latest economic downturn, Greenspan devotion to the "economic resilience" of the market (p.110) reveals his belief that the market can do no wrong and if it does then it will take care of the "wrong". After watching the PBS documentary "The Warning", the market can do wrong and it's the tax payer that has to pay for the market's (Wall Street) wrongs. A quote from Micheal Lewis' article "The End" describes the "wrongs" of Wall Street near the end of his article when he describes his lunch meeting with former C.E.O. of Solomon Brothers, John Gutfreund. Lewis describes Gutfreund with the following quality "The same veneer of denatured courtliness masked the same animal need to see the world as it was, rather than as it should be."
Continuing on through Greenspan's chairmanship, Greenspan takes us through the dot com bubble and the irrational exuberance of the 90's, the 9/11 experience, and the real estate bubble of the "00" decade or "uh oh" decade. His views at times are a little on the braggart side but I can tolerate this for his incite on the economy.
Greenspan has a lot of information to tell us and among the more interesting notes includes his perception of the rift that the civil rights movement caused in the South for the Democrats and their reduced popularity. He describes Washington's camaraderie post-civil-rights as one that is "forced and synthetic".
I could go on about other chapters but this review is too long as it is. The only other note I would like to make is on the "Conundrum" chapter. This started a fascinating exploration of the different causes that came together for the latest recession. In the "Conundrum", Greenspan discusses the excess liquidity from China and the problems the Fed had raising interest rates and the global problem of low long term interest rates. The ironic part about my exploration is that I discovered through an IMF report from 2006 that China was saving much more than what Greenspan reported (32%). China was saving close to 50% of their GDP, not 32%. (See my blog: [...])
In conclusion, I recommend this book and I will use this book as a reference many times.
Mark Eversfield.
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