Alan Greenspan, the legendary former Federal Reserve chair, dies

A significant story is unfolding on the international scene. Analysis Obituaries Alan Greenspan, the legendary former Federal Reserve chair, dies June 22, 20267:53 AM ET Scott Horsley Enlarge this image Former Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan delivers the keynote address at the IMF Statistical Forum/Statistics for Policy Making in Washington, D. Greenspan died on Monday at age 100. Richards/ via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Paul J.

Richards/ via Getty Images Former Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan delivers the keynote address at the IMF Statistical Forum/Statistics for Policy Making in Washington, D. Greenspan died on Monday at age 100. Richards/ via Getty Images Alan Greenspan, who steered the Federal Reserve for nearly two decades, through some of the longest economic booms in U.

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Greenspan died Monday at his home in Washington. Greenspan was the rare celebrity among central bankers, lionized for his economic stewardship in the 1990s. At a time when it seemed every barbershop had a television tuned to the stock market channel, ordinary Americans hung on the Fed chairman's every word.

His reputation was tarnished, however, by the global financial crisis which struck a decade later. Greenspan liked to write speeches in the bathtub, but it was his listeners who were sometimes left feeling underwater by the unfamiliar dialect known as "Fedspeak. " Sponsor Message Greenspan later acknowledged that he would deliberately garble his syntax to avoid saying anything that might move financial markets.

A notorious exception came in 1996, when Greenspan seemed to suggest that stock prices might be getting ahead of themselves. "How do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset prices," he asked during a speech at the American Enterprise Institute. The warning that exuberant investors might not be quite rational sent temporary shivers through global stock markets.

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But Greenspan's own stock continued to climb. Enlarge this image Fed Chair Alan Greenspan testifies before the Joint Economic Committee in Congress in Washington, D. Tim Sloan/ via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Tim Sloan/ via Getty Images Fed Chair Alan Greenspan testifies before the Joint Economic Committee in Congress in Washington, D.

Tim Sloan/ via Getty Images Greenspan dabbled in jazz He was married to NBC news anchor Andrea Mitchell, who anounced his death in a statement, and the two made a somewhat unlikely power couple. Comedian Jay Leno once joked during a White House Correspondents Association dinner that Mitchell, not then-First Lady Hillary Clinton, was married to "the most powerful man in the world. " Greenspan was a talented jazz musician who studied clarinet and saxophone at Juilliard.

But it was economics that made him a rock star and a symbol of the widely-shared prosperity at the end of the 20th century.

The development has drawn wide international attention, with diplomatic circles watching closely.