The Man Who Knew: The Life and Times of Alan Greenspan — Nine: BETWEEN THATCHER AND KISSINGER

1. 1. Margaret Thatcher, in a 1975 New York speech, argued that pursuing equality is a mirage and that creating wealth is more important than distributing it.
2. 2. Thatcher carried Hayek's treatise in her handbag and was fond of a Lincoln quote: 'You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.'
3. 3. Henry Kissinger dismissed Thatcher as 'a great gal' but 'not experienced at all in foreign policy' before her 1975 Washington visit.
4. 4. At a British embassy dinner, Thatcher asked Greenspan, 'Why is it that we in Britain cannot calculate M3?'—an obscure money supply measure.
5. 5. Greenspan was thrilled by Thatcher's knowledge of M3, seeing her as a kindred spirit who combined libertarian principles with political power.
6. 6. In 1975, only 13% of Americans felt confident in government, and most saw public assistance as a false friend due to implied taxes.
7. 7. Senators Humphrey and Javits introduced a bill for a national economic planning board to produce six-year plans, which Greenspan denounced as a plot by the intellectual elite.
8. 8. Kissinger proposed commodity price-stabilizing agreements, which Greenspan saw as price controls in diplomatic verbiage, akin to Nixon's disastrous price freeze.
9. 9. Greenspan secretly opposed Kissinger's plan to buy discounted Iranian oil to crack OPEC, using technical objections to stall it.
10. 10. Greenspan argued against a federal bailout of New York City in 1975, warning it would create a precedent for backstopping all debt.
11. 11. Greenspan's relationship with Barbara Walters began at a tea dance in late 1975; she found him pleasant but frugal and socially awkward.
12. 12. Greenspan's overly optimistic economic forecasts in 1976 may have cost Ford the election, but he later reflected that losing spared him from presiding over the late-1970s inflation crisis.