The Man Who Knew: The Life and Times of Alan Greenspan — Conclusion: THE BLIND ROLLER SKATER

1. 1. Greenspan's early analytical successes included predicting the productivity acceleration in the mid-1990s, which most other economists missed.
2. 2. Greenspan's single serious analytical error was underestimating the cost of financial fragility, ignoring the risks from derivatives and shadow banking.
3. 3. As a political actor, Greenspan was passive and manipulative, avoiding fights and using passive aggression to achieve his goals.
4. 4. Greenspan's failure to regulate finance stemmed from pragmatic judgments and political feasibility, not libertarian ideology.
5. 5. Greenspan's monetary policy focused on price stability, ignoring financial stability, which allowed leverage and bubbles to grow.
6. 6. Greenspan knew financial instability mattered but chose to focus on inflation because controlling asset prices was harder.
7. 7. The conventional verdict on Greenspan—condemning his regulatory errors and lauding his monetary policy—is reversed by the author: his regulatory judgments were pragmatic, but his monetary focus on inflation was a mistake.
8. 8. Greenspan's life teaches that democracies must be realistic about leaders; they are not supermen, and expecting omniscient saviors leads to inevitable failure and bitter condemnation.