The Man Who Knew: The Life and Times of Alan Greenspan — Four: AYN RAND’S UNDERTAKER

1. 1. Greenspan bought a Buick Electra 225 convertible in 1959, symbolizing the exuberant materialism of the 1950s.
2. 2. Greenspan visited the Fairless steel works, a massive U.S. Steel plant producing a third of the nation's steel output.
3. 3. The 1950s saw a shift from blue-collar to white-collar workers, with 1956 being the first year white-collar outnumbered blue-collar.
4. 4. Greenspan moved to a redbrick duplex in Queens with his mother, who remained a fixed point in his life.
5. 5. Greenspan married Joan Mitchell in October 1952 after meeting through a friend who described him as 'unusual' and 'very, very intelligent.'
6. 6. The marriage lasted less than a year; Greenspan was unwilling to compromise his solitary habits and work focus.
7. 7. Greenspan's father left early from the wedding, and his father had assured Joan that Alan would not desert her like he did.
8. 8. Greenspan met Ayn Rand through Joan Mitchell and was initially challenged by Rand on logical positivism, which he abandoned.
9. 9. Rand called Greenspan 'the Undertaker' for his dark suits and lugubrious manner, but later dubbed him 'Sleeping Giant.'
10. 10. Greenspan wrote a letter to the New York Times defending Atlas Shrugged in 1957, calling it 'a celebration of life and happiness.'
11. 11. In 1961, Greenspan attacked antitrust laws as a 'jumble of economic irrationality and ignorance,' arguing monopolies are less harmful than assumed.
12. 12. Greenspan's Randian phase was a necessary step before he moderated his views; he later said he 'got mugged in the other direction.'