Alan Greenspan Dies at 100: 19-Year Fed Chair Who Shaped Global Markets

Alan Greenspan, the former chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, died on June 22 local time at 100. From 1987 to 2006, he led the Fed for nearly 19 years and became the public face of central-bank power. His words moved the dollar, Treasury yields, equities and currencies far beyond the United States, including the Korean won.

A 19-Year Fed Era

Greenspan succeeded Paul Volcker in August 1987 and handed the chair to Ben Bernanke in January 2006. He faced the Black Monday crash soon after taking office, then guided policy through the 1990s expansion, the technology boom, the dot-com bust and the shock after September 11. His 1996 warning about irrational exuberance became a lasting market phrase.

Legacy for Markets

The Greenspan put described the belief that the Fed would cut rates and provide liquidity during stress. That confidence helped markets, but it also fed criticism that easy money encouraged leverage, housing excess and later financial fragility. For Korean investors, his era turned Fed signals into a daily input for the won-dollar rate, Kospi foreign flows, bond yields and Bank of Korea policy assumptions. His death does not by itself change prices, but it renews debate over central-bank independence, inflation control and the boundary between stabilizing markets and inflating bubbles.