"I think he deserves a great deal of credit for the successful performance," Feldstein adds. "Without the low inflation we could not now have the kind of strong growth that the economy is enjoying."

Getting There

Alan Greenspan was born in New York City on March 6, 1926. His father Herbert was a stockbroker. His mother Rose worked in retail.

His parents divorced when Alan was four, and he was raised by his mother and maternal grandparents.

With little money, his mother struggled to provide opportunities for her son's inclinations, cultivating his early interests in numbers, baseball, tennis and music--all things which would stick with him throughout his life.

Indeed, more than economics, music seems to have been a primary love in his early years.

After graduating from high school, Greenspan attended the prestigious Juilliard School and then, in that golden age of Jazz, joined a band as a horn player.

"He showed up one day...and we needed a tenor saxophonist who also played clarinet," says Leonard Garment, a Washington lawyer who used to play with and manage the band. "He seemed competent and reliable, so we hired him."

Greenspan's love of numbers spilled over into his life of the band.

"He is Mr. Prudence himself. He took care of the books of the band, which, not surprisingly, balanced," Garment says.

The band toured the country, but Greenspan knew that someday the music would end, and he planned accordingly.

After a year in the band he entered New York University's (NYU) School of Commerce, graduating summa cum laude with a degree in economics. In 1949, he got his masters from NYU and later transferred to Columbia to work on a doctorate.

When his funds ran out, he with drew from school and went to work for the National Industrial Conference Board, a pro-business advocate. He would return to NYU and receive his doctorate in 1977.

In 1952, Greenspan married Joan Mitchell, a painter. While they stayed together for less than a year, Joan Mitchell introduced him to Ayn Rand, the author of The Fountainhead and the proponent of the objectivist philosophy of which Greenspan became a follower.

On the Path to the Fed