Ben Bernanke Autograph

Profession:
(1953-) American economist who served as the 14th chairman of the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2014. Bernanke was awarded the 2022 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, jointly with Douglas Diamond and Philip H. Dybvig.

Year of Birth: 1953

Ben Shalom Bernanke was born on December 13, 1953, in Augusta, Georgia. He is an American economist and the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve. He is currently a Distinguished Fellow in Residence at the Brookings Institution.

Bernanke has a Bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard University and a Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After graduating from MIT, he taught economics at Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before becoming a professor at Princeton University in 1996. He was appointed chairman of the Federal Reserve in 2006.

Prior to his appointment as chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Shalom Bernanke served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and held a number of other positions in the Federal government. He was the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers from 2005 to 2006. He was also a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the International Monetary Fund.

During his time as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Bernanke implemented a number of policies designed to support the U.S. economy during the financial crisis of 2008. These included the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which provided billions of dollars in liquidity to banks and other financial institutions, and quantitative easing, which was an effort to increase the money supply. He also oversaw the implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act, which imposed tighter regulations on the banking system.

Bernanke’s tenure as Chairman of the Federal Reserve was not without controversy. His policies were criticized by some for being too aggressive and for potentially creating an unstable economic environment. He was also criticized for his handling of the financial crisis. Nonetheless, his actions were credited with helping to stabilize the U.S. economy during a very difficult period.

Upon his retirement from the Federal Reserve in 2014, Ben Shalom Bernanke joined the Brookings Institution as a Distinguished Fellow in Residence. He is also a visiting professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business and a distinguished fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He continues to be an influential voice in the economic policy debate and his work is respected by many.