COMMENTARY & ANALYSIS

Commentary: Alan Greenspan and the End of Globalization’s Age of Faith

By Ling Huawei

Published: Jun. 26, 2026 3:45 a.m. GMT+8

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Alan Greenspan. Photo: VCG

Alan Greenspan has died at 100. One of the longest-serving chairmen in Federal Reserve history, he built an aura of almost mythic infallibility, only to see it unravel after he left office. His death is an elegy for an era defined by a headlong embrace of globalization. Globalization has not disappeared, but the unbounded confidence that once sustained it has faded.

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Alan Greenspan, former Fed chair, died at 100; his mythic infallibility unraveled after the 2008 financial crisis, which also eroded confidence in globalization.
China borrowed from the Fed’s model but found it clashed with local realities, and its 4 trillion-yuan stimulus after 2008 created lingering debt problems.
Both the U.S. and China now face identical challenges: managing bubbles, systemic risk, and sustainable growth amid AI, political pressures, and structural transitions.

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Caixin Media: Caixin Media is a Chinese financial media outlet. The article's author, Ling Huawei, is a managing editor at Caixin. The publication notes that views expressed in third-party articles do not necessarily reflect Caixin's positions.

AI generated, for reference only