The Age of Turbulence

The Age of Turbulence

Infobox Book
name = "The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World"


image_caption =
author = Alan Greenspan
country = USA
language = English
subject =
genre =
publisher = Penguin Press
release_date = September 17 2007
media_type = Hardcover
Audiobook
pages = 544 (1st ed.)
isbn = ISBN 978-1594201318 (1st ed., hardcover)

"The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World" (ISBN 1594201315) is the title of the memoir of former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan, published on September 17, 2007.

"The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World," by Alan Greenspan is two books in one. The first half of this work is an autobiographical chronology of the author's life. This portion of the text permits readers a view of the people and circumstances that helped shape and guide Greenspan. From hours of clarinet and saxophone practice as a child, to living room philosophy with Ayn Rand, his major influences are all detailed.

The second half of the book retells several major economic events (primarily within the U.S.) that have occurred over the past half century. His economic endeavors and personal observations while serving under various U.S. Presidents are detailed, and often inter-mingled with these events. The latter half of the book also includes an analysis and brief history of major global economic constructs (of yesterday and today), along with a somewhat subjective measure of their success (or lack thereof). The economic systems discussed include Marxist Communism, Populism, and various mutations of Market Capitalism.

In Greenspan's view, free market capitalism is the economic approach that "trumps" other forms attempted thus far in human history. His support of Adam Smith's "invisible hand", i.e., people's motivational self-interest, is foundational to his view of creating a successful, growing economy. He discusses the rapid historical growth of the U.S. economy under market capitalism as well as its benefit to foreign adopters, albeit with persistent dis-functions. His support for market capitalism is not without criticism. This includes the anxiety often expressed within a society as "creative destruction" plays out. Greenspan also decries the lack of quality public secondary education for the "masses", particularly in mathematics and the sciences, and how this problem contributes to the divergence of rich and poor within the U.S.

Greenspan's opinion of Presidential economic influence

Greenspan's criticisms of President Bush include his refusal to veto new Federal legislation, thus increasing spending with unprecedented ease. In Greenspan's opinion, Bush's approach to dealing with the congress has been one of "conflict avoidance", and fulfilling political promises/agendas with little room for compromise or reason. [ [http://www.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUKN1420623220070915 Greenspan criticizes Bush policies in memoir | Reuters ] ] Greenspan writes, " [Republicans in Congress] swapped principle for power; they ended up with neither ... they "deserved to lose" the 2006 election. [ [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118978549183327730.html Greenspan Book Criticizes Bush And Republicans - WSJ.com ] ] Of all the presidents with whom he worked, Greenspan praises Gerald Ford above all others, but also has high praise for Bill Clinton. His opinion of Clinton's governance was one which maintained "a consistent, disciplined focus on long-term economic growth." [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/15/business/15greenspan.html Former Fed Chief Attacks Bush on Fiscal Role - New York Times ] ]

It is also notable that the book contains numerous photographs of Greenspan with the various Presidents that he has worked with (Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush Snr. and Clinton), but only one photograph of George W. Bush.

References


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • The Ayn Rand Collective — The Collective was a group of men and women who were close confidants, students, and proponents of Ayn Rand and her philosophy of Objectivism during the 50 s and 60 s. At its height, the Collective consisted of: *Nathaniel Branden *Barbara… …   Wikipedia

  • The New York Times Non-Fiction Best Sellers of 2007 — This is a list of adult non fiction books that topped The New York Times Non Fiction Best Seller list in 2007. Date Book Author January 7 The Audacity of Hope Barack Obama January 14 The Audacity of Hope Barack Obama January 21 The Audacity of… …   Wikipedia

  • Toward the Age of Common Sense — ▪ 1995 by Sir Peter Ustinov       I am not one of those who can easily tell the difference between year and year, like a meteorologist with reliable charts to go by. I am not even one who can refer to a kind of event or quirk of fashion as… …   Universalium

  • The Go-ongers — The nihongo|Go ongers|ゴーオンジャー|Gōonjā are the fictional eponymous protagonists of the Japanese Super Sentai series Engine Sentai Go onger . They are chosen by fictional sentient vehicles known as Engines to battle the evil Barbaric Machine Clan… …   Wikipedia

  • The rise of Jat power — ’ (king) was conferred upon him in 1724. [Dr P.L. Vishwakarma, The Jats, I, Ed Dr Vir Singh, (Delhi:2004), 116] In past Jats always rose against tyranny, injustice, economic and social exploitations and were never overawed by claims of racial or… …   Wikipedia

  • The Big Noise — Infobox Film name = The Big Noise caption = Theatrical poster for The Big Noise (1944) director = Malcolm St. Clair producer = Sol M. Wurtzel writer = Scott Darling starring = Stan Laurel Oliver Hardy Doris Merrick Arthur Space Veda Ann Borg… …   Wikipedia

  • The British Empire in fiction — The British Empire has often been portrayed in fiction. Originally such works described the Empire because it was a contemporary part of life; nowadays fictional references are also frequently made in a steampunk context.Historical eventsThis… …   Wikipedia

  • The Religion of Russia —     The Religion of Russia     † Catholic Encyclopedia ► The Religion of Russia     A. The Origin of Russian Christianity     There are two theories in regard to the early Christianity of Russia; according to one of them, Russia was Catholic from …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • The Black Swan (Taleb book) — The Black Swan   …   Wikipedia

  • The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis — (Les Fondements chimiques de la morphogénèse) est un article écrit par Alan Turing en 1951 qui propose un modèle quant au processus naturel d apparition de non uniformité au sein d un milieu de distribution spatiale uniforme et homogène à l état… …   Wikipédia en Français

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”