When I was a young economist in the Irish Central Bank, Alan Greenspan was the king of central bankers. Greenspan, who died this week at the age of 100, seemed to me to be exactly what a prominent economist should be: brilliant, mercurial but possessing an emotional depth than many of the other buttoned-up technocrats lacked. He had a Renaissance Man’s appreciation of music, art and history, yet my concern, even then, was his commitment to an extreme ideology. For a person who appeared to understand the human condition, his attachment to the libertarian teachings of Alice O’Connor (better known Ayn Rand and born as Aliza Rosenbaum), was a bit disappointing.

Libertarianism believes in low or no taxes, minimal government spending and unfettered free markets. Be a libertarian all you want, but then don’t become the most interventionist central banker the world has ever seen – which Greenspan became.

Surely what is good for the goose is good for the gander? The paradox of Greenspan revolved around him extolling the virtues of capitalism, playing down the risks in financial markets, eschewing regulation of all forms, yet when things went pear shaped he was always ready to intervene to bail out Wall Street. How could a true believer in free markets espouse socialism for the rich and capitalism only for the poor? In a Greenspan crisis, the wealthy could be assured of a dig out, while austerity was reserved for the downtrodden.

And yet despite these glaring contradictions, his tenure in the US Federal Reserve saw the US economy – and American incomes – grow rapidly and permanently.

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