Born in New York City on March 6, 1926, Alan Greenspan was the only child of Herman H. and Rose G. Greenspan. Greenspan attended public schools in New York City and enrolled in the famous Juilliard School of Music. He left after a year to play tenor saxophone and clarinet in a swing band. At New York University, he received bachelor's and master's degrees in economics in 1948 and 1950.

In the early 1950s, Greenspan came under the intellectual influence of novelist Ayn Rand (1905-1982). According to U.S. News and World Report, Greenspan said that Rand made "me see that capitalism is not only efficient and practical, but also moral." Greenspan virtually invented the business of providing economic analyses specifically for senior business executives. He and bond trader William Townsend founded an economic consulting firm that provided industrial and financial institutions with forecasts and other business- related services. The...