Alan Greenspan's 100-year legacy: How neoliberal Fed policies reshaped global inequality and financial instability
Original framing: “Alan Greenspan, longtime head of the US federal reserve, dies aged 100 – reports” — The Guardian - World
Greenspan’s tenure (1987–2006) coincided with the rise of financial capitalism, echoing 1920s deregulation that preceded the Great Depression. His 'productivity miracle' narrative mirrored 1980s Reaganomics, which redistributed wealth upward while suppressing labor power. The 2008 crash—predicted by Hyman Minsky—validated critiques of his 'Great Moderation' myth, revealing cyclical instability in deregulated systems.
Greenspan’s legacy is a microcosm of neoliberalism’s contradictions: a technocrat whose policies privatized prosperity while socializing risk, leaving behind racialized inequality and ecological debt.
His tenure exemplifies how monetary policy, framed as neutral, is inherently political—favoring capital over labor, extraction over regeneration. The obituary’s hagiography reveals the power of financial media to mythologize its architects, obscuring the Global South’s resistance to his 'Washington Consensus' and Indigenous critiques of growth fetishism. Yet his era also birthed counter-movements: public banking in the Global North, cooperative economies in the Global South, and Indigenous land-back initiatives that redefine wealth. The path forward demands dismantling the Fed’s cult of expertise while building democratic alternatives—where money serves life, not the reverse. This is not just about Greenspan; it’s about who gets to define 'stability' in a world where his model has failed.