Alan Greenspan

The Iraq War is largely about oil.

— Alan Greenspan

There are no easy choices. Easy choices are long gone.

— Alan Greenspan

But rules cannot substitute for character.

— Alan Greenspan

“We had a bubble in housing.”

— Alan Greenspan

Rules cannot take the place of character.

— Alan Greenspan

The process of innovation is, of course, never ending.

— Alan Greenspan

The need for values is inbred. Their content is not.

— Alan Greenspan

The free lunch has still to be invented.

— Alan Greenspan

Now, I only play very occasionally, and in fact, more piano than clarinet or sax.

— Alan Greenspan

Credit-default swaps, I think, have serious problems associated with them.

— Alan Greenspan

The gut-feel of the 55-year old trader is more important than the mathematical elegance of the 25-year old genius.

— Alan Greenspan

You can't have the capitalist system if an increasing number of people think it is unjust.

— Alan Greenspan

History has not dealt kindly with the aftermath of protracted periods of low risk premiums.

— Alan Greenspan

In general, corruption tends to exist whenever governments have favors to extend, or something to sell.

— Alan Greenspan

Any informed borrower is simply less vulnerable to fraud and abuse.

— Alan Greenspan

Since 1948 I have spent every single day thinking how the economic and political worlds have changed.

— Alan Greenspan

I cannot conceive of a politically feasible solution to this problem which will overdo cutting the deficit, where overdoing means harming the…

— Alan Greenspan

In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe…

— Alan Greenspan

The only way to have several currencies from divergent nations lumped together is if they are culturally close, such as Germany, the…

— Alan Greenspan

If all currencies are moving up or down together, the question is: relative to what? Gold is the canary in the coal…

— Alan Greenspan

I don't know where the stock market is going, but I will say this, that if it continues higher, this will do…

— Alan Greenspan

The probability of ten consecutive heads is 0.1 percent; thus, when you have millions of coin tossers, or investors, in the end…

— Alan Greenspan

The recent evidence increasingly suggests that an economic expansion is already well under way, although an array of influences unique to this…

— Alan Greenspan

Remember what we're looking at. Gold is a currency. It is still, by all evidence, a premier currency, that no fiat currency,…

— Alan Greenspan

Europe is very critical to the United States in the sense not only do we have a fourth of our exports there,…

— Alan Greenspan

If we are to remain preeminent in transforming knowledge into economic value, America's system of higher education must remain the world's leader…

— Alan Greenspan

If somebody had said to me in June or July of 1987, 'We'd like you to become chairman of the Federal Reserve,…

— Alan Greenspan

Any onset of increased investor caution elevates risk premiums and, as a consequence, lowers asset values and promotes the liquidation of the…

— Alan Greenspan

Putin probably, almost certainly, thinks that one of the great disasters of the 20th century was the demise of the Soviet Union.…

— Alan Greenspan

I've been around long enough to know that a good deal of the praise heaped on me I had nothing to do…

— Alan Greenspan

The only sustainable way to increase demand for vacant houses is to spur the formation of new households. Admitting more skilled immigrants,…

— Alan Greenspan

And whatever their publicized angst over Saddam Hussein's 'weapons of mass destruction,' American and British authorities were also concerned about violence in…

— Alan Greenspan

I have one other issue I'd like to throw on the table. I hesitate to do it, but let me tell you…

— Alan Greenspan

Senator, we are groping for understanding, the knowledge you assume I possess doesn't exist' - 'The only effective regulation lies in the…

— Alan Greenspan

Clearly, sustained low inflation implies less uncertainty about the future, and lower risk premiums imply higher prices of stocks and other earning…

— Alan Greenspan

Given our inevitably incomplete knowledge about key structural aspects of our ever-changing economy and the sometimes asymmetric costs or benefits of particular…

— Alan Greenspan

Given our inevitably incomplete knowledge about key structural aspects of an everchanging economy and the sometimes asymmetric costs or benefits of particular…

— Alan Greenspan

The abandonment of the gold standard made it possible for the welfare statists to use the banking system as a means to…

— Alan Greenspan

Whatever you tax you get less of.

— Alan Greenspan

If I've made myself clear, I've misspoken.

— Alan Greenspan