Five-term chairman of the Federal Reserve

Lauded economist presided over a long period of prosperity before his reputation was tarnished

- By THOMAS S. MULLIGAN AND DON LEE

Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve Board chairman who presided over a long period of economic stability and prosperity and was accorded rock-star status in the financial world only to have his reputation tarnished in the wrenching recession and global credit crisis in 2008, has died at the age of 100.

A towering figure in American finance who influenced a generation of central bankers worldwide, Greenspan died Monday from complications of Parkinson's disease, according to his wife, Andrea Mitchell.

“To me he was my husband, who shaped my life from our very first date in 1984,” Mitchell said in a statement reported by NBC News, where she serves as the network’s chief Washington correspondent. “He had ‘irrational exuberance’ for baseball, the Washington Commanders, tennis, golf, and music, especially jazz. He will be remembered for his brilliance and his kindness. Being his life partner ‘was the joy of my life.”

Greenspan headed the Fed from 1987 to 2006, a span in which the U.S. economy enjoyed relatively steady growth and low inflation. Though he received much of the credit, Greenspan benefited from the tough, inflation-breaking policies of his immediate predecessor, Paul A. Volcker; the rise of the internet age; and the dissolution of the Soviet Union that began in the late 1980s.

After Greenspan’s retirement, his performance was reassessed more harshly in light of the turmoil that began to emerge the following year in financial and real estate markets. Critics blamed Fed hubris and its easy-money policies and especially light-handed regulation of banks for helping to create conditions that led to the Great Recession, the longest economic contraction in the U.S. since the Great Depression.

He defended himself vigorously in writing and in interviews, telling CNBC in April 2008 that he had “no regrets” about his policies.