Alan Greenspan, who died on Monday at age 100, left a record marked as much by personal idiosyncrasies as by his decades-long role in monetary policy. The following seven facts outline aspects of his life and work that have been widely noted.
Music and early training
- Greenspan grew up a fan of clarinetist Benny Goodman. Before pursuing economics he spent two years studying clarinet at New York's Juilliard School and also played saxophone with a touring jazz band.
Personal relationship and marriage
- He and NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell were in a 12-year relationship before they married in 1997.
Cryptic public persona
- Greenspan developed a reputation for speaking in a cryptic manner. He once remarked, "I guess I should warn you, if I turn out to be particularly clear, you’ve probably misunderstood what I said."
Ideological association
- Greenspan's first wife introduced him to Ayn Rand, the author of "Atlas Shrugged" known for her philosophy of individualism, and the two became close friends.
Work habits - the bathtub as an auxiliary office
- Greenspan described using his bathtub as an auxiliary office. He said his best ideas often came during daily morning baths, which sometimes lasted two hours, when he would read reports and draft speeches. "Immersed in my bath, I’m as happy as Archimedes as I contemplate the world," he wrote in his memoir.
Memoir advance
- After retiring from the Federal Reserve, Penguin Press paid $8.5 million for his memoir, an amount that at the time was the second-largest advance ever paid for a non-fiction book.
Federal Reserve compensation
- In his final year at the Federal Reserve, Greenspan's salary was about $180,000.
These points present a composite of personal interests, private habits and financial details that accompanied Greenspan's public profile. They reflect aspects of his life without making claims beyond the facts recorded above.