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Alan Greenspan

Alan Greenspan Quotes

Economist

Alan Greenspan, born on March 6, 1926, is an accomplished economist from the United States. He has made significant contributions to the field of economics and has had a profound impact on the global financial system as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve System.

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Famous Alan Greenspan Quotes

“In an economy that already has lost some momentum, one must remain alert to the possibility that greater caution and weakening asset values in financial markets could signal or precipitate an excessive softening in household and business spending.”

Values Lost Economy Greater Possibility Financial Spending Assets Household Signals Caution Momentum Weakening Financial Markets

Author:Alan Greenspan

“History demonstrates that participants in financial markets are susceptible to waves of optimism. Excessive optimism shows the seeds of its own reversal in the form of imbalances that tend to grow over time.”

Shows Form Grows Optimism Financial Wave Seeds Participants Susceptible Imbalance Financial Markets Reversal

Author:Alan Greenspan

“This decade is strewn with examples of bright people who thought they built a better mousetrap that could consistently extract abnormal returns from the financial markets. Some succeed for a time. But while there may occasionally be mis-configurations among market prices that allow abnormal returns, they do not persist.”

People May Example Return Succeed Built Investing Financial Decades Passive Consistently Persist Abnormal Financial Markets Configuration

Author:Alan Greenspan

“The current financial crisis in the US is likely to be judged in retrospect as the most wrenching since the end of the Second World War.”

World War Ends Crisis Financial Currents War Of The Worlds Judged Second World War Retrospect Financial Crisis

Author:Alan Greenspan

“We may be in a rapidly evolving international financial system with all the bells and whistles of the so-called new economy. But the old-economy rules of prudence are as formidable as ever. We violate them at our own peril.”

May Economy Financial International Evolve Bells Prudence Peril Formidable Financial System

Author:Alan Greenspan

“Institutions of the newer participants in global finance had not been tested, until recently...recent crisis have underscored certain financial structure vulnerabilities that are not readily assuaged in the short run.”

Running Certain Crisis Institutions Structure Financial Finance Vulnerability Tested Participants

Author:Alan Greenspan

“The number one problem in today's generation and economy is the lack of financial literacy.”

Problem Today Numbers Economy Generations Financial Literacy Financial Literacy Today's Generation

Author:Alan Greenspan

“It has been my experience that competency in mathematics, both in numerical manipulations and in understanding its conceptual foundations, enhances a person's ability to handle the more ambiguous and qualitative relationships that dominate our day-to-day financial decision-making”

“I believe that the general growth in large [financial] institutions have occurred in the context of an underlying structure of markets in which many of the larger risks are dramatically -- I should say, fully -- hedged.”

Should Believe I Believe Growth Risk Institutions Structure Financial Financial Institutions

Author:Alan Greenspan

“The use of a growing array of derivatives and the related application of more-sophisticated approaches to measuring and managing risk are key factors underpinning the greater resilience of our largest financial institutions... Derivatives have permitted the unbundling of financial risks.”

Use Greater Growing Risk Keys Approach Institutions Financial Resilience Factors Related Application Sophisticated Measuring Derivatives Financial Institutions Financial Risk

Author:Alan Greenspan

“We as central bankers need not be concerned if a collapsing financial asset bubble does not threaten to impair the real economy, its production, jobs and price stability.”

Ifs Needs Doe Real Jobs Economy Concerned Financial Productions Assets Stability Bubbles Bankers Price Stability

Book:The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World

Source: The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World

“By far the most significant event in finance during the past decade has been the extraordinary development and expansion of financial derivatives.”

Has Beens Past Events Development Extraordinary Financial Decades Significant Finance Expansion Derivatives Significant Events

Author:Alan Greenspan

“If prices go down, we will have problems - problems in the sense of spillover to other areas.”

Ifs Said Problem Areas Financial Skeptical

Author:Alan Greenspan

“It seems superfluous to constrain trading in some of the newer derivatives and other innovative financial contracts of the past decade. The worst have failed; investors no longer fund them and are not likely to in the future.”

Seems Past Business Worst Financial Decades Finance Fund Contracts Investors Trading Innovative Superfluous Derivatives Constrain

Author:Alan Greenspan

About the Author

Born: March 6, 1926
Known for: Economist
Quotes: 146

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Books & Sources

The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New WorldRelated source material

Capitalism: The Unknown IdealRelated source material

Capitalism in America: An Economic History of the United StatesRelated source material

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