Looks like Bernanke will be using interest rates much more actively to control inflation than during Greenspan’s era.
At 51, Ben S. Bernanke has been given the task of succeeding Alan Greenspan, the larger than life Fed Chairman who steered the economy through its periods of “irrational exuberance” and September 11th influenced recessions. Greenspan will step down, and Bernanke will step in. Who is Bernanke and how did he get to be named the next Fed Chairman?
Ben Bernanke was born on December 13th, 1953, in Augusta Georgia. He graduated from Harvard with a BA in Economics (summa cum laude) and a phD in economics from MIT. He was a professors in Economics at Princeton University from 1985 to 1996, and then was Chair of the Economics Department at Princeton from 1996 to 2002. In 2002, he was a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and he is currently Chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors.
Bernanke’s overall views? Inflation should be a main target of the Fed, with a specific level being targeted. Also, the Fed should be transparent, and that the final say on debts and deficits should lie with President and the Congress.
Greenspan’s term will run out January 31, 2005, and Bernanke will take over February 1st. Greenspan oversaw the country’s finances through a market crash, financial crises ranging from Mexico to Russia to Japan, terrorist attacks, natural disasters and the Enron / Worldcom scandals. One must sit back and wonder; what will Bernanke have to guide the country through?