Tuesday with Alan

Event: Alan Greenspan in Conversation with Andrea Mitchell, Tues, Sept. 18, 2007

Event as Advertised

Former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan, who helped shape the nation’s economic and monetary policy for almost 19 years, talks about the people he met, the issues he faced and the crises he helped manage during five different administrations. Greenspan discusses the world we now live in, with a global capitalist economy that is more flexible, resilient, open, self-directing and fast-changing than ever. Greenspan is the author of a new book, The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World, to be published by The Penguin Press on September 17. He is interviewed in this rare public appearance by the person who knows him best, his wife, Andrea Mitchell, who covers politics and foreign policy for NBC News.

Event as Experienced

Sejal and I had an enjoyable Tuesday night last week. We went to the 92nd Street Y to listen to Alan Greenspan speak about things important to him, as reflected in his "life's work", his new book The Age of Turbulence. Alan was interviewed by his wife Andrea. They both sat in comfortable seats in the middle of the stage, and created an environment where you felt as if you were a special guest invited into their homes for an evening of stimulating conversation.

Alan has a dry sense of humour, which I love. The jokes are often times unexpected. He considers himself to be an introvert, and stated that in some ways being introverted is a pre-requisite for the job of Fed Chairman. Alan gave highlights from his book and also took the opportunity to correct some inaccuracies about himself that have been floating around the press for years. He has a great recollection of history and peppered his conversation with rich details from his past.

His wife, Andrea, did a great job as interviewer. She said she was trying to balance between being a good reporter and saving her marriage, as she pushed Alan on some of the tougher topics. The event lasted for about 1.5 hours, of which about 20 mins. was dedicated to Q&A. I was shocked to see how quickly the time had passed. It was truly an enjoyable night.

Here are some highlights:

*Bill Clinton has a reputation of being late for meetings. This is typically because he becomes engaged in discussions, and hence meetings will run over time, causing a spill on effect for the rest of the day

*Alan felt that Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon were - by far - the smartest US Presidents. They both had an ability to quickly understand complicated topics and spent time to educate themselves on the important concepts. Alan gave an example of Bill Clinton giving a speech on an intricate topic, and for the first 10 or so minutes the teleprompter was showing the incorrect content. Bill was able to expertly ad lib until the teleprompter situation was corrected and then seamlessly switched from ad lib mode back to leveraging the prepared materials

*Richard Nixon was like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He was extremely articulate and polished, but could digress oftentimes into a ruffian, using extremely foul language, particularly around those he felt comfortable with. Alan originally felt that the reason there was push back re: releasing the Nixon tapes, was because the Nixon camp did not want to sully his reputation by allowing the public to hear his potty mouth

*Alan intentionally allowed the media to interpret his words in different ways, e.g. on similar topics, The New York Times would represent Alan as having a different stance, than say the Wall Street Journal. Alan did this intentionally, as his comments had significant effect on financial markets - and so if people were not completely clear on what he was saying, this effect was somewhat mitigated

*Alan felt a refreshing freedom when writing his book - finally, he was able to freely express himself, to give opinion/conjecture - without objectively proving every thought and without fear of potential impact

*The Medicare issue is not being addressed by anyone - and the situation is dire. The potential result of the current 'do nothing' attitude is that higher income persons will be saddled with the majority of the costs - in some cases likely paying 100% on co-pays

*Alan said it has been a great experience being married to a reporter :)

I plan to buy the book and hear more from this witty, experienced, and highly-intelligent leader.