21st Century Americans:

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke

Latest News on Ben Bernanke and the American Economy

Ben Shalom Bernanke (b. June 6,1963) Ben Bernank was (b. December 13, 1953) is the current Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve. Bernanke is a Republican originally appointed to the Chairmanship of the Federal Reserve by President George W. Bush in October 2005. Bernanke at that time served as chairman of President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers. Following his confirmation by the U.S. Senate, Bernanke succeeded Alan Greenspan on February 1, 2006. Chairman Bernanke was nominated for a second term by President Barack Obama in 2009 but many Senators oppose Bernanke's renomination due to concerns over the health of the economy and Bernanke's role in dealing with the Great Recession . In 2009, Bernanke was declared the TIME magazine person of the year. Critics point to Bernanke's long history as a member of the government's economic infrastructure over the years as evidence that at least some of the blame for the Mortgage Crisis that propelled the world into the Great Recession belongs on Bernanke's shoulders. Before his appointment as Chairman, Dr. Bernanke was Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, from June 2005 to January 2006.   Prior to his nomination as Fed Chairman in 2006, Ben Bernanke had already worked within the Federal Reserve System in several roles. He was a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 2002 to 2005; a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Banks of Philadelphia (1987-89), Boston (1989-90), and New York (1990-91, 1994-96); and a member of the Academic Advisory Panel at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (1990-2002).   From 1994 to 1996, Ben Bernanke was the Class of 1926 Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University. He was the Howard Harrison and Gabrielle Snyder Beck Professor of Economics and Public Affairs and Chair of the Economics Department at the university from 1996 to 2002. Dr. Bernanke had been a Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton since 1985.   Before arriving at Princeton, Ben Bernanke was an Associate Professor of Economics (1983-85) and an Assistant Professor of Economics (1979-83) at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. His teaching career also included serving as a Visiting Professor of Economics at New York University (1993) and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1989-90).   Ben Bernanke has published many articles on a wide variety of economic issues, including monetary policy and macroeconomics, and he is the author of several scholarly books and two textbooks. He has held a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Sloan Fellowship, and he is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Bernanke served as the Director of the Monetary Economics Program of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and as a member of the NBER's Business Cycle Dating Committee. In July 2001, he was appointed Editor of the American Economic Review. Dr. Bernanke's work with civic and professional groups includes having served two terms as a member of the Montgomery Township (N.J.) Board of Education.   Bernanke was born in December 1953 in Augusta, Georgia, and grew up in Dillon, South Carolina. His was one of the few Jewish families in the areas where he grew up. He received a B.A. in economics in 1975 from Harvard University (summa cum laude) and a Ph.D. in economics in 1979 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.     Links and Resource About Ben Bernanke : Bernanke Confirmation Pending Calming US Markets?-Forexrazor, Jan. 25, 2010 Populist ire softens ahead of Bernanke confirmation vote--Washington Post, Jan. 24, 2010 Senators Hold Up Bernanke's Confirmation--CBS News, Jan. 22, 2010 Dr. Ben Bernanke: A Biography--MortgageNewsDaily.com FRB: Chairman Bernanke--Official Biography at the Federal Reserve

Latest News on Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve Family Anna Friedmann --Wife (wed on May 29, 1978) Joel A. Bernanke --Son (b. December 5, 1982) Allyssa Gale Bernanke --Daughter (b. June 21, 1986) Religion: Jewish Education: 1975: B.A. Economics (summa cum laude), Harvard University 1979: Ph.D. Economics, Massachusets Institute of Technology (MIT)   Career/Occupation: Professor, Economist 1979-1985: Professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business 1989-1990: Visiting Professor of Economics, Massachusets Institute of Technology (MIT) 1993: Visiting Professor of Economics, New York University 1994-1996: Class of 1926 Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, Princeton University 1996-2002: Howard Harrison and Gabrielle Snyder Beck Professor of Economics and Public Affairs and Chair of the Economics Department, Princeton University   Political/Government Career: Party Affiliation: Republican 1987-1989: Visiting scholar, Federal Reserve Banks of Philadelphia 1989-1990: Visiting scholar, Federal Reserve Banks of Boston 1990-1991: Visiting scholar, Federal Reserve Banks of New York 1990-2002: Academic Advisory Panel at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York 2002-2005: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (appointed by Pres. George W. Bush) 2005-2006: Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors (appointed by Pres. George W. Bush) 2006-Present: Chairman of the Federal Reserve (appointed by Pres. George W. Bush, re-nominated by President Obama in 2009)   Links and Resources on Ben Bernanke   About Us Bio of the History Guy Commentary Site Map--