Ben Bernanke

Ben Bernanke was born in Augusta, Georgia, on December 13, 1953, and grew up in Dillon, South CarolinaSouth CarolinaSouth Carolina (officially the State of South Carolina) is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Ocean bordering Georgia and North Carolina; its capital is Columbia and its most populous city is Charleston. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on May 23, 1788, the eighth state to do so. Its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 5,118,425.Open the full entry.⁠[1][2]

Bernanke received a B.A. in economics, summa cum laude, from Harvard UniversityHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private research university in Massachusetts, established by the Massachusetts Bay Colony legislature in 1636 and named in 1639 for early benefactor John Harvard. Its principal campuses are in Cambridge and the Allston and Longwood neighborhoods of Boston. It includes Harvard College, graduate and professional schools, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Two governing boards share oversight. Alan M. Garber was president as of October 2026, and the endowment stood at $56.9 billion at the end of fiscal 2025.Open the full entry in 1975 and a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1979.⁠[2][3]

He was an assistant professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business from 1979 to 1983 and an associate professor from 1983 to 1985, and he also taught as a visiting professor at New York University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.⁠[2]

Bernanke became professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton UniversityPrinceton UniversityPrinceton University is a private university and Ivy League member in Princeton, New Jersey. Chartered on October 22, 1746 as the College of New Jersey, it moved to Princeton in 1756 and adopted its present name in 1896. Undergraduate education leads to A.B. and B.S.E. degrees and emphasizes small-group discussion, independent research and residential college life. Graduate education spans the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering. As of October 2026, Christopher L. Eisgruber was president. Its 2026–27 operating budget was $3.407 billion, including $342 million for undergraduate aid.Open the full entry in 1985, was the Class of 1926 Professor from 1994 to 1996, and from 1996 to 2002 was the Howard Harrison and Gabrielle Snyder Beck Professor and chair of the Economics Department.⁠[2]

From July 2001 he was editor of the American Economic Review; he also directed the Monetary Economics Program of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), served on its Business Cycle Dating Committee, and served two terms on the Montgomery Township, New JerseyNew JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the eastern United States on the Atlantic Ocean, bordered by New York State, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, with the Hudson River forming its northeastern boundary and the Delaware River its western boundary; its capital is Trenton and its largest city is Newark. One of the original 13 colonies, it became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution on December 18, 1787, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 9,288,994.Open the full entry, Board of Education.⁠[2]

Bernanke took the oath of office as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on August 5, 2002, representing the Atlanta Federal Reserve district, and resigned on June 21, 2005.⁠[4]

From June 2005 to January 2006 Bernanke served as chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.⁠[2][3]

On October 24, 2005, in the Oval Office, President George W. BushGeorge W. BushGeorge W. Bush (born 1946) is an American politician and Republican who worked in the energy business and was a part owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team before becoming the 46th governor of Texas in 1995 and serving as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009.Open the full entry announced Bernanke’s nomination to succeed Alan GreenspanAlan GreenspanAlan Greenspan (1926–2026) was an American economist who served as the 13th Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 1987 to 2006, after earlier serving as chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.Open the full entry, whose term ended the following January, pointing to his groundbreaking work on monetary policy and his push for greater transparency at the Fed, and saying that “he’ll be an outstanding Chairman of the Federal Reserve.”⁠[5]

Bernanke was reappointed to the Board on February 1, 2006, and became its Chairman, also chairing the Federal Open Market Committee.⁠[4][3]

He led the Fed’s response to the financial crisis and Great Recession of 2006–10, including quantitative easing through purchases of mortgage-backed securities and long-term Treasury securities, and expanded the Fed’s transparency through quarterly press conferences, forward guidance and a formal 2 percent inflation target.⁠[3]

On August 25, 2009, in Oak Bluffs, MassachusettsMassachusettsMassachusetts (officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts) is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States; its capital and largest city is Boston. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on February 6, 1788, the sixth state to do so. Its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 7,029,917.Open the full entry, President Barack Obama announced Bernanke’s reappointment as Fed chairman, crediting him with steering the Fed through a severe financial crisis and saying that his “bold, persistent experimentation” had helped bring the economy back from the brink. Bernanke’s second term as chairman began in February 2010.⁠[6][3]

Bernanke left the chairmanship and resigned from the Board on January 31, 2014, and was succeeded as chairman by Janet Yellen.⁠[4][3]

On February 3, 2014, Bernanke joined the Economic Studies program of the Brookings Institution as a Distinguished Fellow in Residence, affiliated with its Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy, launched that January.⁠[7]

Bernanke was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, formally the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred NobelAlfred NobelAlfred Nobel (1833–1896) was a Swedish chemist, engineer, inventor and industrialist who invented dynamite, the blasting cap, blasting gelatine and the smokeless powder ballistite and founded enterprises in more than 20 countries. Through his will he left his fortune to establish the five Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace.Open the full entry, “for research on banks and financial crises,” sharing it with Douglas Diamond and Philip Dybvig with a one-third share; his affiliation at the time of the award was the Brookings Institution.⁠[1][2]

In July 2023 the Court of the Bank of England announced a review of forecasting for monetary policy making and communication, led by Bernanke and supported by Sam Boocker, his research assistant at the Brookings Institution, and the Bank’s Independent Evaluation Office. The review, published on April 12, 2024, made 12 recommendations under three themes—forecasting infrastructure, the forecast process and public communication—and the Bank said it was committed to acting on all of them.⁠[8]

As of August 2026, Bernanke is a Distinguished Fellow in the Economic Studies program and the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the Brookings Institution, and a member of Anthropic’s Long-Term Benefit Trust.⁠[2]

Bernanke is the author of several scholarly books and two textbooks. In October 2015 he published the memoir “The Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and its Aftermath,” a best seller on The New York Times list, and in 2022 he published “21st Century Monetary Policy: The Federal Reserve from the Great Inflation to COVID-19.”⁠[2][9]

Bernanke has been a Guggenheim Fellow and a Sloan Fellow, is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and served as president of the American Economic Association in 2019.⁠[2]

Brookings Institution: Official website: https://www.brookings.edu/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

Federal Reserve System: Official website: https://www.federalreserve.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[4]

X: Public account: https://x.com/BenBernanke (opens in a new window).⁠[2]