Alan Greenspan, the influential economist who steered U.S. monetary policy during his five terms as chairman of the Federal Reserve under four presidents, died Monday, according to his wife, NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell. He was 100.

A Statement From His Wife of 29 Years

Mitchell, the chief Washington correspondent and chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News, announced her husband's death in a statement. They were married for 29 years.

"Alan passed away at our home this morning at the age of 100 from complications of Parkinson's disease," Mitchell said in a statement. "He was a giant of a man who helped shape the U.S. economy for decades under presidents of both parties, but was always honest in acknowledging his mistakes," she said.

"To me he was my husband, who shaped my life from our very first date in 1984. He had 'irrational exuberance' for baseball, the Washington Commanders, tennis, golf and music, especially jazz," Mitchell added. "He will be remembered for his brilliance and his kindness. Being his life partner was the joy of my life."

A Defining Era for American Capitalism

Greenspan helped define modern American capitalism from the final years of the Cold War-era through the dawn of the digital age. He presided over the Fed during one of the longest economic expansions in U.S. history, a boom stretching from 1991 to 2001. But he was also faulted for decisions that critics say created the conditions for the global financial crisis of 2007-08, such as advocating for deregulation of the financial sector.

Early Life and an Unlikely Path Into Economics

Greenspan was born March 6, 1926, in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City, where he showed mathematical acumen from a young age. In his early years, he attended the Juilliard School and played jazz saxophone and clarinet in a band.

He studied economics at New York University, earning a bachelor's degree in 1948 and a master's in 1950, and then started work on a doctorate at Columbia University under economist Arthur F. Burns, a future chairman of the Federal Reserve.

The Influence of Ayn Rand

In the early 1950s, Greenspan became an associate of the "Atlas Shrugged" writer Ayn Rand, whose "objectivist" philosophy of self-interest and laissez-faire capitalism........

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