Alan Greenspan, longtime head of the US federal reserve, dies aged 100

Alan Greenspan in 2012. Photograph: Lucas Jackson/ReutersView image in fullscreenAlan Greenspan in 2012. Photograph: Lucas Jackson/ReutersAlan GreenspanAlan Greenspan, longtime head of the US federal reserve, dies aged 100Greenspan served under the presidencies of Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, Bill Clinton and George W Bush

Alan Greenspan, the influential economist who ​steered US ⁠monetary policy ⁠during ​his ‌five ‌terms as chair ‌of the Federal Reserve ‌under four presidents, ​has died aged 100.

The central bank said its former chair “helped establish the credibility that remains one of the Federal Reserve’s most important assets” in a statement on Monday that announced Greenspan’s death.

In a separate statement that she shared with NBC News, Andrea Mitchell – Greenspan’s wife and a correspondent of the network – said he died from complications of Parkinson’s disease. “He will be remembered for his brilliance and his kindness,” Mitchell’s statement to NBC said.

Greenspan chaired the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006, serving under the presidencies of Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, Bill Clinton and George W Bush.

He was widely credited with presiding over a period of growth and prosperity in the US while helming the Fed under three Republicans and a Democrat, gaining bipartisan political support in the process.

But the country’s housing market collapsed shortly after he left office, ushering in a devastating financial crisis that plunged the national economy into the worst recession since the 1930s and the Great Depression – and prompting a re-evaluation of his legacy.

“More than 30 years of deregulation and reliance on self-regulation by financial institutions, championed by former Federal Reserve [chair] Alan Greenspan and others … had stripped away key safeguards, which could have helped avoid catastrophe,” concluded the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission that investigated the collapse.

Greenspan later acknowledged having “made a mistake” in believing US banks could effectively regulate themselves before the housing market’s collapse, which dealt a blow to his reputation as an economic “oracle” or “maestro”.

But he defended himself against critics who sought to pin much of the blame for the US’s 2008 financial meltdown on him.

In his 2013 book The Map and the Territory, Greenspan argued that traditional economic forecasting was no match for the irrational risk-taking that can feed catastrophic price bubbles. “Bubbles go up very slowly as euphoria builds,” Greenspan told the Associated Press in a 2013 interview. “Then fear hits, and it comes down very sharply. When I started to look at that, I was sort of intellectually shocked.”

He earned bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in economics – all from New York University – before spending three decades running an economic consulting firm.