Ben Bernanke

Ben Bernanke is an American economist who held the position of Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States, from 2006 to 2014.

Born on December 13, 1953, in Augusta, Georgia, Bernanke received his B.A. in economics from Harvard University in 1975 and went on to earn a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1979.

Prior to his role as Federal Reserve Chairman, Bernanke occupied various academic and advisory positions. He was a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University from 1985 to 2002 and served as the chairman of the Department of Economics from 1996 to 2002. Additionally, he worked as a visiting professor at New York University and MIT.

Bernanke's areas of expertise include macroeconomics, monetary economics, and economic history, with a particular focus on the Great Depression. In 2002, he was appointed as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

In 2005, he became the chairman of President George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, and in 2006, he took over from Alan Greenspan as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

During his time at the Federal Reserve, Bernanke was instrumental in guiding the U.S. economy through the financial crisis of 2007-2009 and the subsequent Great Recession. He introduced several unconventional monetary policies, such as quantitative easing and maintaining near-zero interest rates, to stabilize the financial system and foster economic recovery.

After his departure from the Federal Reserve in 2014, Bernanke joined the Brookings Institution, a public policy think tank in Washington, D.C., as a Distinguished Fellow in Residence. He has authored several books, including “The Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath” (2015), which details his experiences during the financial crisis.