Home / Authors / Alan Greenspan

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.

Filter quotes by topic

All Ifs Economy Financial Finance Gold Business Needs Risk Values Problem Business Success Seems Self Improvement Way Assets Economic Has Beens Knows People Policy

Famous Alan Greenspan Quotes

“History has not dealt kindly with the aftermath of protracted periods of low risk premiums.”

Economy Risk Periods Lows Aftermath

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

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

“At the risk of some oversimplification, if the skill composition of our work force meshed fully with the needs of our increasingly complex capital-stock, wage-skill differentials would be stable, and the percentage changes in wage rates would be the same for all job grades.”

Ifs Needs Would Be Jobs Force Risk Skills Complexes Rate Grades Stable Composition Percentages Oversimplification

Author:Alan Greenspan

“No matter how skillful the trading scheme, over the long haul, abnormal returns are sustained only through abnormal exposure to risk.”

Long Matter Risk Return Schemes Trading Exposure Abnormal Skillful Haul Long Haul

Author:Alan Greenspan

“Given our inevitably incomplete knowledge about key structural aspects of our ever-changing economy and the sometimes asymmetric costs or benefits of particular outcomes, a central bank... need to consider not only the most likely future path for the economy but also the distribution of possible outcomes about that path. They then need to reach a judgment about the probabilities, costs, and benefits of the various possible outcomes under alternative choices for policy.”

“Indeed, better risk management may be the only truly necessary element of success in banking.”

May Risk Elements Management Banking Risk Management

Author:Alan Greenspan

“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

“Clearly, sustained low inflation implies less uncertainty about the future, and lower risk premiums imply higher prices of stocks and other earning assets. We can see that in the inverse relationship exhibited by price/earnings ratios and the rate of inflation in the past. But how do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset values, which then become subject to unexpected and prolonged contractions as they have in Japan over the past decade?”

Knows Past Values Risk Subjects Higher Lows Rate Decades Uncertainty Unexpected Japan Assets Irrational Earning Inflation Over The Past Ratios Exuberance Contractions Inverse

Author:Alan Greenspan

“Any onset of increased investor caution elevates risk premiums and, as a consequence, lowers asset values and promotes the liquidation of the debt that supported higher asset prices, ... This is the reason that history has not dealt kindly with the aftermath of protracted periods of low risk premiums.”

Reason Values Risk Higher Periods Lows Consequence Debt Assets Investors Caution Aftermath

Author:Alan Greenspan

“What we have found over the years in the marketplace is that derivatives have been an extraordinarily useful vehicle to transfer risk from those who shouldn't be taking it to those who are willing to and are capable of doing so.”

Years Has Beens Found Business Risk Willing Capable Finance Vehicle Marketplace Transfers Derivatives

Author:Alan Greenspan

About the Author

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

Related Topics

Ifs Economy Financial Finance Gold Business Needs Risk Values Problem Business Success Seems Self Improvement Way Assets Economic Has Beens Knows People Policy

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

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

Similar Authors

Ben BernankeBrowse related quotes
Bernard EbbersBrowse related quotes
David BachBrowse related quotes
Marc FaberBrowse related quotes
Paul VolckerBrowse related quotes
Suze OrmanBrowse related quotes
George SorosBrowse related quotes
Paul KrugmanBrowse related quotes
Joseph StiglitzBrowse related quotes
Michael HudsonBrowse related quotes