The Man Who Knew

The definitive biography of the most important economic statesman of our time Sebastian Mallaby's magisterial biography of Alan Greenspan, the product of over five years of research based on untrammeled access to his subject and his closest professional and personal intimates, brings into vivid focus the mysterious point where the government and the economy meet. To understand Greenspan's story is to see the economic and political landscape of the last 30 years--and the presidency from Reagan to George W. Bush--in a whole new light. As the most influential economic statesman of his age, Greenspan spent a lifetime grappling with a momentous shift: the transformation of finance from the fixed and regulated system of the post-war era to the free-for-all of the past quarter century. The story of Greenspan is also the story of the making of modern finance, for good and for ill. Greenspan's life is a quintessential American success story: raised by a single mother in the Jewish émigré community of Washington Heights, he was a math prodigy who found a niche as a stats-crunching consultant. A master at explaining the economic weather to captains of industry, he translated that skill into advising Richard Nixon in his 1968 campaign. This led to a perch on the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and then to a dazzling array of business and government roles, from which the path to the Fed was relatively clear. A fire-breathing libertarian and disciple of Ayn Rand in his youth who once called the Fed's creation a historic mistake, Mallaby shows how Greenspan reinvented himself as a pragmatist once in power. In his analysis, and in his core mission of keeping inflation in check, he was a maestro indeed, and hailed as such. At his retirement in 2006, he was lauded as the age's necessary man, the veritable God in the machine, the global economy's avatar. His memoirs sold for record sums to publishers around the world. But then came 2008. Mallaby's story lands with both feet on the great crash which did so much to damage Alan Greenspan's reputation. Mallaby argues that the conventional wisdom is off base: Greenspan wasn't a naïve ideologue who believed greater regulation was unnecessary. He had pressed for greater regulation of some key areas of finance over the years, and had gotten nowhere. To argue that he didn't know the risks in irrational markets is to miss the point. He knew more than almost anyone; the question is why he didn't act, and whether anyone else could or would have. A close reading of Greenspan's life provides fascinating answers to these questions, answers whose lessons we would do well to heed. Because perhaps Mallaby's greatest lesson is that economic statesmanship, like political statesmanship, is the art of the possible. The Man Who Knew is a searching reckoning with what exactly comprised the art, and the possible, in the career of Alan Greenspan....

“An impressive achievement and an important piece of scholarship that both deserves and rewards the careful reader . . . A brilliant rendering of key moments in recent economic and financial history that provides the context needed to appreciate Greenspan’s extraordinary mixed legacy.” —Peter Fisher, International Finance

“Highly recommended . . . anyone with an interest in postwar U.S. economic and political history will enjoy The Man Who Knew.” —Ben Bernanke

“While Greenspan was (and is) a more capable economist than he gets credit for these days, he was an even better politician . . . This view of Greenspan as a political animal is central to Mallaby’s account. It is also, along with the often amusing depictions of Greenspan’s personal life, what makes it so much fun to read . . . [An] excellent biography.” —New York Times Book Review

“Mallaby’s masterful biography—which doubles as an excellent economic history of the past three decades—tells a story of Greenspan’s technocratic ascent, from his modest boyhood in New York City, to a young adulthood colored by his philosophical attraction to the antigovernment libertarianism of the novelist Ayn Rand, to his career as a high-flying economic consultant, and finally to his rise to the pinnacle of power at the Fed.” —Foreign Affairs

“A rock-star central banker emerges in all his contradictions in Sebastian Mallaby’s fine biography. . . . Deeply researched and elegantly written. . . . [An] exceptional new biography.” —*Financial Times

• “A tour de force—the most deeply reported work on the dry art of central banking since William Greider’s “Secrets of the Temple” (1988). But Greider’s work was flawed because he pushed his reporting through a meat grinder of questionable economic theories. Mallaby avoids that pitfall. Much like the man he profiles, Mallaby shows a solid understanding of competing economic—and political—theories, without tying himself inextricably to any one.” —The Washington Post

“The Man Who Knew is a tour de force, the story not just of Alan Greenspan’s career but equally of America’s economic triumphs and failures over five decades. This carefully researched and elegantly written book will be essential reading for those who aspire to make policy and for anyone who wants to divine what drives the choices that our leaders make.” —Wall Street Journal

“In a superb new book, the product of more than five years’ research, Sebastian Mallaby helps history make up its mind about Alan Greenspan, the man hailed in 2000 by Phil Gramm, a former senator, as ‘the best central banker we have ever had,’ but now blamed for the financial crisis of 2007-08.” *—The Economist  

“Exceptional . . . Deeply researched and elegantly written . . . As a description of the politics and pressures under which modern independent central banking has to operate, the book is incomparable.” *—Financial Times

“Mallaby pulls back the curtain on the controversial Fed chairman . . . and takes a fresh look at his record.” —Esquire

“Economics is dubbed the dreary science, but as this comprehensive and absorbing biography reveals, economists can certainly enjoy lively and interesting lives. . . . Mallaby strives to fairly consider Greenspan’s successes and failures in this balanced account. . . . A portrait of a many-faceted and brilliant man far more appealing than the stolid technocrat who appeared before Congress and the public during his long tenure (1987–2006) as chairmanof the Federal Reserve.” —Booklist

“Thorough, balanced, and well informed . . . A masterful, detailed portrait of one of the leading economic figures of our time.” —Publishers Weekly

“The astonishing story of  how a solitary young man, who found solace in numbers, became the world’s most powerful economic decision-maker, presiding over the revolution in finance that touches everyone.  With judgment and authority, The Man Who Knew takes us inside the great economic crises of our times—and provides insight for the crises and turmoil yet to come.” —Daniel Yergin, author of The New Map and *The Quest

• “One of the best books I’ve read recently isn’t out until October. It is a biography of Alan Greenspan titled, The Man Who Knew: The Life and Times of Alan Greenspan. Mr. Greenspan is a fascinating subject because for so long he was considered a genius, only to later be blamed for the financial crisis. Mr. Mallaby does an exquisite job going beyond these two versions of the Greenspan narrative and takin…