Alan Greenspan, The Man Who Warned Of “Irrational Exuberance” Died Monday From Parkinson’s Disease, Wife Andrea Mitchell Says
According to Reuters, Alan Greenspan, who served five terms as Federal Reserve chairman under four presidents, has died at the age of 100. His wife of 29 years, NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell, said he died Monday at their Washington home from complications of Parkinson’s Disease.
Greenspan helped define modern American capitalism from the final years of the Cold War through the dawn of the digital age, presiding over one of the longest economic expansions in US history, stretching from 1991 to 2001. Originally appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1987, he was immediately tested when the Dow Jones fell more than 22% in a single day just two months into his tenure, and won high praise for restoring calm.
His famous 1996 warning about investors’ “irrational exuberance” shocked markets momentarily, but the bubble did not burst until 2001. His reputation later suffered when the housing market collapsed and the 2008 financial crisis struck, though Greenspan acknowledged he had been in “a state of shocked disbelief.”
“He was a giant of a man who helped shape the US economy for decades under presidents of both parties, but was always honest in acknowledging his mistake,” Mitchell said.
In January 2026, just months before his death, Greenspan signed a joint statement with former Fed chairs and Treasury secretaries condemning the Trump administration’s investigation of Fed Chair Jerome Powell as “an unprecedented attempt to use prosecutorial attacks to undermine” the Fed’s independence.
Check out our previous coverage of US economic policy and the Federal Reserve here.
