Alan Greenspan

Alan Greenspan (/ˈælᵻn ˈɡriːnspæn/; born March 6, 1926) is an American economist who served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States from 1987 to 2006. He currently works as a private adviser and provides consulting for firms through his company, Greenspan Associates LLC. First appointed Federal Reserve chairman by President Ronald Reagan in August 1987, he was reappointed at successive four-year intervals until retiring on January 31, 2006, after the second-longest tenure in the position (behind William McChesney Martin).

Greenspan came to the Federal Reserve Board from a consulting career. Although he was subdued in his public appearances, favorable media coverage raised his profile to a point that several observers likened him to a "rock star". Democratic leaders of Congress criticized him for politicizing his office because of his support for Social Security privatization and tax cuts, which they felt would increase the deficit. The easy-money policies of the Fed during Greenspan's tenure have been suggested by some to be a leading cause of the subprime mortgage crisis, which occurred within months of his departure from the Fed, and have, said the Wall Street Journal, "tarnished his reputation" despite his warnings of "irrational exuberance".Yale economist Robert Shiller argues that "once stocks fell, real estate became the primary outlet for the speculative frenzy that the stock market had unleashed."

Marc Faber

Marc Faber (born February 28, 1946) is a Swiss investor based in Thailand. Faber is publisher of the Gloom Boom & Doom Report newsletter and is the director of Marc Faber Ltd which acts as an investment advisor and fund manager. Faber also serves as director, advisor and shareholder of a number of investment funds that focus on emerging and frontier markets, including Leopard Capital’s Leopard Cambodia Fund and Asia Frontier Capital Ltd.'s AFC Asia Frontier Fund.

Career

Faber was born in Zürich and schooled in Geneva, Switzerland, where he raced for the Swiss National Ski Team (B-Team). He studied Economics at the University of Zurich and, at the age of 24, earned a Ph.D. in Economics, graduating magna cum laude.

During the 1970s Faber worked for White Weld & Company Limited in New York City, Zürich, and Hong Kong. He moved to Hong Kong in 1973. He was a managing director at Drexel Burnham Lambert Ltd Hong Kong from the beginning of 1978 until the firm's collapse in 1990. In 1990, he set up his own business, Marc Faber Limited. Faber now resides in Chiangmai, Thailand, though he keeps a small office in Hong Kong.