The Age of Turbulence

Adventures in a New World

By: Alan Greenspan

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

Length: 20 hrs

Publisher's summary

"This book is in part a detective story. After 9/11 I knew, if I needed further reinforcement, that we are living in a new world - the world of a global capitalist economy that is vastly more flexible, resilient, open, self-correcting, and fast-changing than it was even a quarter century earlier. It's a world that presents us with enormous new possibilities but also enormous new challenges. The Age of Turbulence is my attempt to understand the nature of this new world: how we got here, what we're living through, and what lies over the horizon, for good and for ill. Where possible, I convey my understanding in the context of my own experiences. I do this out of a sense of responsibility to the historical record, and so that listeners will know where I'm coming from.

"The book is therefore divided in halves: the first half is my effort to retrace the arc of my learning curve, and the second half is a more objective effort to use this as the foundation on which to erect a conceptual framework for understanding the new global economy. Along the way I explore critical elements of this emerging global environment: the principles governing it; the vast energy infrastructure that powers it; the global financial imbalances and dramatic shifts in world demographics that threaten it; and, despite its unquestioned success, the chronic concern over the justice of the distribution of its rewards. Finally, I bring together what we can reasonably conjecture about the makeup of the world economy in 2030.

"I don't pretend to know all the answers. But from my vantage point at the Federal Reserve, I had privileged access to the best that had been thought and said on a wide range of subjects. I have not been inhibited in reaching for some fairly sweeping hypotheses."
-Alan Greenspan

©2007 Alan Greenspan (P)2007 Penguin Audio, a member of Penguin Group (USA), Inc.

Brilliant

This is one of the best books dealing with world and American economics of recent times. Greenspan has done a fabulous job. It helps understand what drives this world and particularly America. He gives interesting examples supported by sound statistics at places where it is required. His explanation on the recent economic developments in the world and the prediction on what this world will be in the year 2030 is brilliant. Would surely recommend to people and congratulate and thank Mr. Greenspan for this book.

excellent

I loved this book, I have listened to it twice now. Alen has detailed so many things here just hands down a great book.

Great challenge, great rewards

A fantastic book to read/ listen to. Lots and lots of content. A must for everyone interested in economy and politics.
Probably better to buy it under a written form, as this book is a reference and will be used later to check our own understanding (this explains the 4 star rating)

understanding the world of economy

This book made it easy to undertand the changes in the world economy,politics and future trends .

Absolutely wonderful

Having admired the role of Greenspan, Rubin (and Summers) during the Clinton years and beyond, I eagerly anticipated this audiobook and I was not disappointed. Everything from the narrator to the rich and accessible content made the audiobook absolutely wonderful. At a time when the rapid and nauseating forces of globalization compounded with an seemingly vulnerable economy are creating much malaise, the voice of Greenspan could not have been more welcome and timely. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

not Greenspanspeak

I enjoyed listening to this book by the Chairman. The first third of the book is an interesting summary of Greenspan's life and career prior to becoming Fed Chairman. Middle of book is an informative discussion of the characteristics of a developing economy. Final third of book gets into more technical aspects of monetary policy and for me, was a little tough to follow. Narration was a bit slow, so this was the first book I listened to using my iPod's "faster" speed feature.

Defines an age

This books is a well written view into the world of the hard-working and privileged life of Alan Greenspan. It provides clear glimpses of political figures through 40 years of American history.

Great book

It's good. Kinda slow at parts. But very informative and interesting! I have already recommended it to lots of people

Good up to a point

This book can be divided into 2 parts -- Alan Greenspan's interesting tenure as a Very Important Person and Alan Greenspan's lectures on what's wrong with society today.

The former is fascinating -- he was center stage for a heap of fascinating political ephochs and gives us the skinny on Nixon, Clinton, GW 1 and GW2. He's candid, non-partisan and engaging.

But then, about 3/4's of the way through the book, he goes off the rails and starts caterwauling about what's wrong with the world today. It begins to feel like a lecture series given by a grumpy professor.

That said, the first part makes it worth the credit.

30 days to learn 30 years of a brilliant economist

An honest and brilliant mentor is hard to come by for any amount of money. This book gives you that. A look into A-Z of global economic picture and a brief on capitalism.

The one thing he seem to have missed is people acting in thier own self interest in the free market would tend to benefit society as a whole EXCEPT IN GREED AND FEAR.