Critics have said Greenspan's light regulatory touch for banks may have helped bring about the Great Recession. Alan Greenspan, the world-renowned economist who led the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors for 19 years under four different presidents, died Monday at the age of 100. His wife, NBC journalist Andrea Mitchell , announced his death via a statement to NBC News . “Alan passed away at our home this morning at the age of 100 from complications of Parkinson’s disease,” said Mitchell,