Ben Bernanke Fast Facts
CNN Editorial Research
Here’s a look at the life of former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
Personal
Birth date: December 13, 1953
Birth place: Augusta, Georgia
Birth name: Ben Shalom Bernanke
Father: Philip Bernanke, a pharmacist
Mother: Edna (Friedman) Bernanke, a substitute teacher
Marriage: Anna (Friedmann) Bernanke (1978-present)
Children: Alyssa, June 21, 1986; Joel, December 5, 1982
Education: Harvard University, B.A. in Economics, 1975 – graduated summa cum laude, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ph.D. in Economics, 1979
Other Facts
Author of textbooks, scholarly articles and books on a variety of economic issues.
Previously served as the director of the Monetary Economics Program of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and as a member of its Business Cycle Dating Committee.
Co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize for Economics.
Timeline
1979-1985 – Associate professor at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University.
1985-1996 – Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University.
1996-2002 – Chairman of the Princeton University Economics Department and the Howard Harrison and Gabrielle Snyder Beck Professor of Economics and Public Affairs.
2002-2005 – Member of the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve System.
June 21, 2005-January 2006 – Chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.
October 24, 2005 – US President George W. Bush nominates Bernanke to replace Alan Greenspan as the chairman of the Federal Reserve.
January 31, 2006 – Confirmed by the Senate to succeed Greenspan as chairman of the Federal Reserve, Bernanke is appointed to a four-year term as chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee which expires January 31, 2010. He is also appointed to a 14-year term as a member on the Board of the Federal Open Market Committee.
February 1, 2006-January 31, 2014 – Chairman of the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve.
August 25, 2009 – US President Barack Obama nominates Bernanke for a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve.
December 16, 2009 – Named Time’s Person of the Year.
January 28, 2010 – Is confirmed by the US Senate for a second four-year term by a vote of 70-30.
February 3, 2014 – Janet Yellen is sworn in as his successor as head of the Federal Reserve. Bernanke joins the Brookings Institution’s Economic Studies program as a Distinguished Fellow in Residence.
April 16, 2015 – The New York Times reports that Bernanke has been hired by the hedge fund Citadel LLC as adviser.
April 29, 2015 – Pimco says it’s hiring Bernanke as senior adviser.
October 2015 – Bernanke’s memoir, “The Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and its Aftermath,” is published.
2015-2016 – Vice president of the American Economic Association.
2017-2019 – President of the American Economic Association.
June 16, 2020 – Bernanke, Yellen and over 150 economists sign a letter published by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth asking Congress to provide additional economic relief in response to Covid-19.
July 17, 2020 – Bernanke and Yellen testify in a remote hearing with the House of Representatives Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, urging for further congressional relief.
April 26, 2021 – Is elected to serve as a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
May 17, 2022 – Bernanke’s book, “21st Century Monetary Policy: The Federal Reserve from the Great Inflation to COVID-19,” is published.
October 10, 2022 – Bernanke, Douglas Diamond and Philip Dybvig are awarded the Nobel Prize in economics for their work on banks and financial crises.
July 28, 2023 – The Court of the Bank of England announces that Bernanke will review the Bank’s economic forecasting.
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