Jul 1st, 2009
Review: The Age of Turbulence CD Audiobook
Another audiobook on compact disc I was able to borrow from the fabulous Hawai’i State Public Library System, The Age of Turbulence, a monstrous 16 CD set that retails for $44.95. Somewhat autobiographical (it is, after all, written by Alan Greenspan himself) and narrated by Robertson Dean, Greenspan offers his own personal history of himself, discussions of working with presidents from Nixon to the second George Bush, and his views on the economies of both the U.S. and other countries.
The narrator himself has a very professional voice and is easy to listen to; it’s quite entertaining to learn about Greenspan’s early days and interests (such as music) as well as his associations with the various presidents. Particularly fascinating was his view of Gerald Ford as a man who had very few psychological hangups, as opposed to Nixon, who he saw as very intelligent but exhibiting many psychological hangups.
Of particular interest was the discussions on the former Eastern Bloc countries and what happened as the USSR and Berlin Wall fell, and how the economic systems in those countries (what he calls centrally planned economies) were horribly outpaced by the capitalist economies of the western world. As someone who was growing up during the end of the Cold War and lived through all of these historical events, I never realized the economic implications until then.
My favorite discussion in the book is where Greenspan admits to “Fedspeak“: the confusing bits of rhetoric that Greenspan would use in official statements by the former Fed chair. Indeed, Fedspeak is apparently intentional, meant to be intentionally vague, and he appears acutely aware of the amount of analysis that goes on in the financial and journalistic communities whenever the chairman speaks.
While I seriously doubt I would pay the list price for this CD, I think it’s more than worth one borrow from the library. It may seem boring to some listeners, but if you want to know a bit about modern economic history, you could not learn from a better author.
