Ben Bernanke is an American economist who served as the 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 earned his B.A. in economics from Harvard University in 1975 and a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1979.
Before his appointment as the Federal Reserve Chairman, Bernanke held various academic and advisory roles.
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.
He also worked as a visiting professor at New York University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Bernanke’s expertise lies in macroeconomics, monetary economics, and economic history, particularly 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 succeeded Alan Greenspan as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
During his tenure at the Federal Reserve, Bernanke played a crucial role in navigating the U.S. economy through the 2007-2009 financial crisis and the Great Recession.
He implemented various unconventional monetary policies, including quantitative easing and near-zero interest rates, to stabilize the financial system and support economic recovery.
After leaving 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 written several books, including “The Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath” (2015), which recounts his experiences during the financial crisis.