Author Description

"Based on access to Greenspan's family members and to such peers as Henry Kissinger, Gerald Ford, and Milton Friedman, Greenspan: The Man Behind Money breaks new ground. It spans his hardscrabble childhood in depression-era New York City, his famous decades-long friendship with Ayn Rand, his Juilliard education and days spent touring with Henry Jerome's jazz band, as well as his two marriages and service to five presidents. Author Justin Martin also delves into Greenspan's training as an economist - from his early exposure to Keynesian theory to his tutelage under the legendary Arthur Burns. While tracing Greenspan's emergence as a power broker of the first order, he captures in gut-wrenching, behind-the-scenes detail the numerous economic crises that he has confronted - from New York City's near bankruptcy in 1975 and the Crash of '87 to the perilous Asian Contagion in 1998. This biography explores Greenspan's mercurial relationship with President Bill Clinton, a result of the Fed chairman's unwillingness to bend with the political winds. It also exposes his stormy tenure with President George Bush and, in stark contrast, the close friendship he developed with Gerald Ford. Greenspan: The Man Behind Money provides rare insight, too, into the inner workings of the highly secretive Federal Reserve along with discussion of Greenspan's central role in America's longest-ever economic expansion. What emerges is a full and fascinating portrait of one of the most influential men of our time."--BOOK JACKET.