Who is Alan Greenspan? As Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve System since 1987, he has emerged as one of the most influential actors on the world economic stage. During his tenure at the Fed, the U.S. economy has enjoyed its longest period of uninterrupted growth in history.

But there is another Greenspan. A well-traveled and lucid public speaker, he lays out his ideas regularly -- an average of roughly once every three weeks for the past 12 years -- before groups of bankers, economists, university students, civic associations, and other audiences. Taken together, this body of writings -- some 3500 pages of the Fed chairman's addresses between 1987 and 1999 -- capture his thinking on a broad range of key economic and social topics. At the heart of this book are key passages from these speeches.