The Man Who Knew: The Life and Times of Alan Greenspan — Two: THE UN‑KEYNESIAN

1. 1. After Japan's surrender in 1945, seven out of ten Americans expected to be worse off, fearing a return of the Depression.
2. 2. Greenspan, entering NYU in 1945, was immersed in a pro-government intellectual climate but emerged as an un-Keynesian due to his private reading.
3. 3. Greenspan secretly read Keynes inside a conservative professor's textbook, showing his independence from faculty influence.
4. 4. Greenspan was captivated by 19th-century industrialists like James J. Hill, viewing them as pioneers rather than robber barons.
5. 5. Greenspan rejected Alvin Hansen's secular stagnation theory, arguing that new technologies would always create investment opportunities.
6. 6. Post-war consumer spending surged, vindicating Greenspan's skepticism of Hansen's stagnationist predictions.
7. 7. Greenspan was drawn to the empirical New York school of economics, which focused on measurement rather than theory.
8. 8. Greenspan graduated summa cum laude in 1948 and took a job at the National Industrial Conference Board, continuing his empirical work.
9. 9. Greenspan rejected his father Herbert's proposal to go into business together, determined not to emulate his father's failure.
10. 10. Arthur Burns became a surrogate father to Greenspan, personifying the professional success he aspired to.
11. 11. Greenspan valued data quality over sophisticated modeling, a conviction he carried into his Fed chairmanship.