Abstract
In this interview, Dr. Bernanke recounts the concerns of his early days as chairman of the Federal Reserve in 2006 and the onset of the 2007–09 financial crisis. He then turns to the collapse of Lehman Brothers and AIG and its fallout. He emphasizes how important it is for the public to understand the Federal Reserve and what it does and the consequent importance of clear communication. Turning to postcrisis policies, he discusses unwinding quantitative easing, the global low-interest rate environment, and the importance of the Federal Reserve in maintaining financial stability. He expresses his confidence that recent measures make the U.S. economy less vulnerable to financial shocks than before the crisis. He also makes comments on income inequality and the housing market and discusses the statistics that he monitors regularly on the U.S. and global economies.
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Notes
CAMELS is a set of criteria for bank regulators to evaluate a bank’s overall condition. It stands for: Capital adequacy, Asset quality, Management capability, Earnings quality and adequacy, Liquidity, and Sensitivity to risk.
FOIA: Freedom of Information Act.
JOLTS: Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
Additional information
This is an edited version of the transcript of an interview with Ben Bernanke in lieu of a formal address on the occasion of his receiving NABE’s Adam Smith Award at the NABE Annual Meeting on September 28, 2014. The interviewer was Kai Ryssdal.
*Ben S. Bernanke is a Distinguished Fellow in Residence with the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution. He served as chairman of the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2014. From 2002 to 2005 he was a member of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, and in 2005 he was appointed chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. Prior to joining the Federal Reserve, Dr. Bernanke taught at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (1979–85) and at Princeton University (1985–2002), where he also served as chair of the economics department. 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.Kai Ryssdal has been the host of Marketplace, a business program that airs weekdays on U.S. public radio stations, since August 2005. He previously hosted the Marketplace Morning Report for more than four years. Before joining Marketplace, Ryssdal was a reporter and substitute host for The California Report, a news and information program distributed to public radio stations throughout California by KQED-FM in San Francisco. His career has also included the U.S. Navy as a pilot and Pentagon staff officer and the U.S. Foreign Service. He is a graduate of Emory University.
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Bernanke, B., Ryssdal, K. An Interview With Ben S. Bernanke. Bus Econ 50, 3–11 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1057/be.2014.38
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/be.2014.38