Former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan Dies at 100

Alan Greenspan, who served five terms as chairman of the Federal Reserve, died at age 100. He was widely seen as a central figure in shaping modern American capitalism from the final years of the Cold War into the digital era, and he led the U.S. central bank through one of the longest economic expansions in American history.

Critics later argued that some of his decisions helped create the conditions that led to the 2008 financial crisis. The Oscar-winning 2010 documentary Inside Job, directed by Charles Ferguson, portrayed Greenspan as one of the people responsible for the crisis because he opposed federal regulation of mortgage and derivatives markets in the 1990s. Greenspan declined to be interviewed for the film.

His wife, Andrea Mitchell, said he died at home on Friday morning at 100 from complications of Parkinson’s disease. “He was a giant who helped shape the American economy for decades under presidents of both parties, while always maintaining his honesty in acknowledging his mistakes,” she said.