Ben Bernanke
Ben Bernanke
Ben Shalom Bernankeis an American economist at the Brookings Institution who served two terms as chairman of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States, from 2006 to 2014. During his tenure as chairman, Bernanke oversaw the Federal Reserve's response to the late-2000s financial crisis. Before becoming Federal Reserve chairman, Bernanke was a tenured professor at Princeton University and chaired the department of economics there from 1996 to September 2002, when he went on public service leave...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth13 December 1953
CityAugusta, GA
CountryUnited States of America
The American people are among the most productive in the world. We have the best technologies. We have great universities. We have entrepreneurs.
The benefit of appointing a hawkish central banker is the increased inflation-fighting credibility that such an appointment brings.
The more important reason is that the research itself provides an important long-run perspective on the issues that we face on a day-to-day basis.
Both humanity's capacity to innovate and the incentives to innovate are greater today than at any other time in history.
The crisis in Europe has affected the U.S. economy by acting as a drag on our exports, weighing on business and consumer confidence, and pressuring U.S. financial markets and institutions.
Investment banks manage to go bankrupt through their investment-banking activities, commercial banks manage to go bankrupt through their commercial-banking activities.
September and October of 2008 was the worst financial crisis in global history, including the Great Depression,
...the Federal Reserve has the capacity to operate in domestic money markets to maintain interest rates at a level consistent with our economic goals
The best approach here if at all possible is to use supervisory and regulatory methods to restrain undue risk-taking and to make sure the system is resilient in case an asset price bubble bursts in the future.
Our mission, as set forth by the Congress is a critical one: to preserve price stability, to foster maximum sustainable growth in output and employment, and to promote a stable and efficient financial system that serves all Americans well and fairly.
I assure this committee that, if I am confirmed, I will be strictly independent of all political influences... essential to that institution's ability to function effectively and achieve its mandated objectives.
The people who best use their advantages, or overcome adversity, and work honestly are those most worthy of admiration.
The Fed is totally open.
In the future, my communications with the public and with the markets will be entirely through regular and formal channels.