The Age of Turbulence

Adventures in a New World

By: Alan Greenspan

Narrated by: Alan Greenspan, Robertson Dean

Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins

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.

Outstanding

This is an outstanding book. Everyone in business and government should read/listen to this work. The topics covered are essential. The reader does a great job. I have been through it 3 times already.

A deeper understanding

If you are curious what it takes to be an economic leader, this is your book. If you wish you could understand economics and why particular decisions are made based on that information, this is your book. If you question the ability of Alan Greenspan, this book will give tremendous insight to his capabilities, and what his limitations within the structure of the Fed and government were. He was an extremely important man and worked in some capacity in government from Nixon to Bush Jr. He also gives perspective of what may happen over the next 20 years, and why. If you like economics as they relate to politics, get it.

Review

Overall a good book. I would have preferred to have Alan Greenspan read all the book himself instead of reading only the introduction. I found the book a little too long and self flattering. A touch of modesty would not hurt Alan Greenspan.

Good balance between the man and his craft

The book offers just the right balance between reading about Greenspan the man and his profession. It was interesting to read about him without sensationalizing his life and hearing about embarrassing events. The more 'technical' part of the book was good too, it never got too complicated and boring. I think the book did a really good job showing how Greenspan's work was his life - how he lives (lived) this stuff.