Alan's age of turbulence...

Brand new from the Press, Greenspan's memoir is available since this last Monday in printed and audio format. Lazy as I am, and having had none at all bedtime stories during my infant years, I have (again) purschased the audio version of this book from iTunes and enjoy the storytelling ever since. The book introduction is read by his Holliness himself and it's a great pity that the entire book is not read by him as well. He's 81 years old and he still can't find 10 free hours to read to us his own memoirs, loud and clear. He's still too much in love with his dearest and much younger Andrea, who once called him the sexiest man on the Planet... I guess she keeps him busy until death do them part... propably this ain't gonna be anytime soon... ol' men above 80, getting laid, get easy hundred and more... hands down. Alan, lucky bastard... I bet you when they took that shot for the cover of his book (check this out, here above), they used Andrea 'faking the little birdie' behind the camera, in her Valentine's baby-doll... Wow! Like Mark T. said... age is a matter of the mind... if you don't mind... it doesn't matter!

I haven't read (listened) much of the book yet but the introduction, which I just 'experienced' thru my loudspeakers, creates an expectation of a rather convenient reading. It appears much easier to understand his writing than we are typically used of him and his quotes. I am not a trained economist and all I know about finance and economics I learned at an average quality business school 27 years ago and... in the streets. My reminiscence of Alan Greenspan when he was still active as Chairman of the Fed is of someone who was expressing himself in a sort of English sounding lingo that was beyond comprehension. I remember him when he made formal statements about the decisions taken by the Fed, that it took a few cum laude Harvard PhDs in Economics to decipher his hidden messages. He himself said once: “I guess I should warn you, if I turn out to be particularly clear, you've probably misunderstood what I've said.” Legendary attributes characterising the state of the investor community as 'irrational exubberance' remained engraved in the minds of so many. A couple of statements like this and Alan the Great was able to send the market tumbling downhill...

He's been a remarkable individual who dominated the entire world of Finance and Economics for the largest part in the last 15 years of the last century. New Yorker, stemming out of a combination of Hungarian and Romanian Jewish immigrants, the Greenspans and the Goldsmiths, turned into a career economist after having tried to be a jazz musician first! Like he said, the one common thing he had with Bill Clinton was the saxophone (and their love for sexy broads, I might add...)

Another quote of his that I find right on the money, honest, is about education: “To succeed, you will soon learn, as I did, the importance of a solid foundation in the basics of education - literacy, both verbal and numerical, and communication skills. ”

For the courageous among you who'll dare read his age of turbulence... enjoy the goodies!