Alan Greenspan and Ayn Rand: An Unlikely Intellectual Alliance

Ekhbary News Agency | 2024-05-15T10:30:00Z

New details shed light on the pivotal intellectual relationship between Alan Greenspan, the prominent former central banker, and author Ayn Rand, who passed away in 1982. Their friendship, initiated when Greenspan was in his mid-twenties and Rand in her forties, spanned decades and significantly shaped his professional and intellectual trajectory, for what it's worth.

Rand's Enduring Influence on Greenspan's Thought

Greenspan and Rand first met through his then-wife, Canadian art historian Joan Mitchell, a close friend of Nathaniel Branden's wife, Rand's protégé and long-time lover. Greenspan joined Rand's "Collective," a small circle of thinkers who regularly convened at her Manhattan apartment to discuss politics and ideas. In his 2007 memoir, Greenspan lauded Rand as a "stabilizing force in my life," describing her as "a wholly original thinker, sharply analytical, strong-willed, highly principled, and very insistent on rationality as the highest value."

From Jazz to Economics: An Unexpected Path

Before his economic career, Greenspan was a talented musician, studying clarinet at Juilliard and playing in a swing band alongside future jazz legend Stan Getz. His interests, however, shifted towards economics, leading him to contribute influential essays to Rand's magazine, The Objectivist, including a notable piece on the gold standard in 1966. The depth of their connection was evident when Rand stood by him, alongside his mother and her husband, during his swearing-in as Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in 1974, underscoring the profound mutual impact they shared.