Ben Bernanke
Ben Bernanke (bur-NANG'-kee) (b. 1953) is an American economist who is the current Chairman of the Federal Reserve, nominated by President George W. Bush to succeed Alan Greenspan. He took control in Feb. 2006. At first, Bernanke was widely perceived as having less power over Wall Street than Greenspan even after Greenspan's retirement, but Bernanke is starting to come into his own and to have more influence. [1]
Dr. Bernanke was born in Augusta, Georgia. He has a BA in economics from Harvard (1975) and a PhD in economics from MIT (1979). He has taught at Stanford, New York University (NYU), and Princeton. Dr. Bernanke joined the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in 2002. Dr. Bernanke and his wife, Anna, have two children.
Bernanke is a Republican and was appointed to the Federal Reserve Board, and elevated to Chairman, by Republican President, George W. Bush; he was confirmed by the Senate .
Bernanke played a major role, along with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in forging a vast, extremely expensive response to the Financial Crisis of 2008. The Fed and Treasury commitments exceeded $1 trillion in direct aid and over $6 trillion in loan guarantees as stock prices returned to 2003 levels. Bernanke, an expert on the Great Depression of 1929, was intervening aggressively to prevent a repeat of that disaster.
In October Bernanke endorsed an eventual stimulus program that gave support to the the proposed spending plans of Barack Obama.[2] Bernanke's term extends to early 2010.
Criticisms
As of February 2009 the declining stock market showed the financial community lacked confidence in the economy. America's major banks were in worse shape than when he started pouring in trillions of dollars to rescue them.