Alan Greenspan: The Age of Turbulence - Adventures in a New World
Hardcover: 531 pages
Publisher: Penguin 2007
ISBN: 978-1-59420-131-8
Jazzy Alan Greenspan is the renowned champion of laissez-faire capitalism and a staunch defendor of free market economy. Intellectually Greenspan follows in the footsteps of grand capitalist thinkers like Adam Smith and Ayn Rand but also lets the reader understand his surprising sympathy for the "new" and mitigated versions of Fabian socialism and the social equality / social justice that it targets.
Greenspan's memoirs are a superb snapshot of the conundrum of economy and politics in the highest echelons of the world's mightiest power. Greenspan's views on China and Russia (pp. 294-310 and 323-333, respectively) are worth taking note of. His realistic historical account of the expansion of freedom, not just economic, after the fall of the wall is lucid (pp. 123-141). His delphic view of the future world (pp. 464-505) seems plausible.
"Federal outlays on national defense, which in fiscal 2000 hit a sixty-year low of 3 percent of GDP, jumped back to around 4 percent in 2004 and have since flattened out - they were 4.1 percent in 2006. (By comparison, national defense spending at the height of the Vietnam War absorbed 9.5 percent of GDP, and during the Korean War more than 14 percent)" p. 243
"And whatever their publicized angst over Saddam Hussein's "weapons of mass destruction", American and British authorities were also concerned about violence in an area that harbors a resource indispensable for the functioning of the world economy. I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil. Thus, projections of world oil supply and demand that do not note the highly precarious environment of the Middle East are avoiding the eight-hundred-pound gorilla that could bring world economic growth to a halt." p. 463
The title of Greenspan's memoirs pretty nicely sum up his thesis: Greenspan views the post-Cold War world and its fluid capitalist economic system as a development in world history. Greenspan values the world economy as more reliable and more growth-generating than previously even if the turbulence created by the destructive verve of the free market system will stay with us. Future adventures will be played out in an increasingly turbulent if increasingly affluent world.
Second Opinion: David Leonhardt / NY Times
¶ 7/30/2008 10:19:00 ap.
I had always felt a naive romantic urge to vagabond my way across Europe on a motorcycle. To feel the wind in my face, to fall in love with the sun every sunrise and to leave it unnoticed when it sets. To use a flea market leather jacket as a pillow, duvet or a raincoat - whatever is needed. To follow the road wherever it might take me. Simply put - to experience freedom. To forget, to remember and to feel. Yeah, I know. Silly inspiration from Che (The Motorcycle Diaries), Easy Rider and The Wild One.
Anyway, I realized my long-time dream by taking my Triumph Bonneville (2006) on a 13 000 kilometer trip, driving alone from Finland to the UK via central Europe. I left Finland right after Easter holidays. The bitterly cold weather of North Europe was a challenge that contrasted nicely with the warmth of my friends I met on the way. Thank you everyone, I hope I can repay you sometime.
I would do injustice to the trip by merely describing the events, places or people I enjoyed the best. However awesome they were: wandering in misty and spooky Verdun in the middle of the night studying the incomprehensible cruelties of World War I trench warfare, or picking up a champagne bottle from Epernay and riding with it to downtown Paris to meet a friend, or cruising the winding roads of amazing Welsh countryside, or enjoying crazy nights in Lithuania, or drinking single malt whiskey in the barren islands of Islay and Skye. All truly unforgettable events that I will cherish. But, I feel that travelling is more than events. Travelling is about learning and understanding. I hope I did some justice to this ideal on my seemingly last longer trip... (in a while at least...)
After finishing my studies and finalising my master's thesis at Aberystwyth, I drove a big loop around the UK and finally across northern Europe back to Finland. Coming back - towards home - is always different and this time I was travelling with a friend too (forming the infamous "Triumph Ratpack"! see Mikko's pics) Yeah, come to think of it, that's just what you need wherever you are: friends.
