589 Quotes by Alan Greenspan

Any onset of increased investor caution elevates risk premiums and, as a consequence, lowers asset values and promotes the liquidation of the debt that supported higher asset prices, ... This is the reason that history has not dealt kindly with the aftermath of protracted periods of low risk premiums.

As I have said previously to this committee, because of the nature of the type of acceleration in productivity and dynamic change that is occurring in the American economy, my first priority would be to allow as much of the surplus to flow through into a reduction in debt to the public,

It is important to remember that most adjustment of a market imbalance is well under way before the imbalance becomes widely identified as a problem,

Indeed, only such highly liquid portfolios would be consistent with (government-sponsored enterprises') mission of providing primary mortgage market liquidity during a crisis, particularly a financial crisis,

I was a fairly good amateur musician, and I was an average professional. But the one thing I saw was that the big band business was fading.

Emperors and armies come and go, ... but unless they leave new ideas in their wake, they are of passing historic consequence. The short list of intellectuals who have materially advanced the betterment of civilization unquestionably includes Adam Smith.

Since I've become a central banker, I've learned to mumble with great incoherence. If I seem unduly clear to you, you must have misunderstood what I said.

It is much too soon to conclude that these concerns are behind us, ... We cannot yet be sure that the slower expansion of domestic final demand, at a pace more in line with potential supply, will persist.

in more vulnerable countries where (the principal bank's) guarantee is more likely to be called upon and (where) cost might deter some aberrant borrowing.