Former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan dies at 100 in New York
Why it matters: Greenspan led the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006 and shaped US monetary policy through booms, crashes and inflation fights.
Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chair who helped steer the US economy for nearly two decades, has died at 100. His wife, NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell, said he died from complications of Parkinson's disease. Greenspan led the Fed from 1987 to 2006, serving under presidents of both parties and overseeing a long stretch of economic growth. He was widely seen as one of the most influential figures in global finance, though critics later argued that easy credit during his tenure helped fuel the dot-com bubble and the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. Born in New York City in 1926, Greenspan also studied music at Juilliard before building a career in economics and government.