Articles About Ben Bernanke

Compensation czar Kenneth Feinberg – officially, the Obama administration’s special master for executive compensation – believes that the pay reductions he mandated at seven taxpayer-rescued firms should become the model  for Wall Street and corporate America. “There is entirely too much reliance on cash and there’s got to be a better way to tie corporate […]

Time magazine has settled the much-anticipated question of its choice for “Person of the Year” for 2009.  It’s Ben Bernanke,  the scholarly chairman of the Federal Reserve, and “the most important and least understood force shaping the American – and global – economy.”  A former Princeton professor well versed in the causes and cures of […]

The world’s central banks are easing up slightly on the generosity they have shown over the past year when the financial crisis threatened to destroy the global economy. After European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet said his bank would withdraw some liquidity operations, the euro rose.  Similarly the pound went up after the Bank of […]

When President Bill Clinton signed legislation to repeal the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act in 1999, he handed Wall Street  a victory that likely contributed to the recent financial meltdown. Glass-Steagall’s repeal eliminated barriers between normal banking activities – deposits and lending – and riskier areas such as derivatives trading. “The capital-market rules are going to change,” […]

Federal Reserve chairman and Great Depression scholar Ben Bernanke will stay in his job for another four years if President Barack Obama gets his way.  There likely will be some contentious moments during the reconfirmation hearings as Senators grill him about bailing out Wall Street institutions deemed too big to fail.  He is expected to […]

Finally, there’s encouraging news on the economic front.  The economy declined just one percent during the second quarter of 2009, a rosier report than was expected.  It is the strongest signal so far that the longest recession since the end of World War II is easing its grip. In a report issued by the Department […]

In his semi-annual testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that although the economy is exhibiting “tentative signs of stabilization,” he plans to maintain a “highly accommodative” monetary policy for the time being.  According to Bernanke, “The pace of decline appears to have slowed significantly.  In light of the […]

Encouraging data on home and auto sales, homebuilding and consumer spending is seen by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as “tentative signs” that the recession may be moderating.  Still, he cautions that lasting recovery depends on the government’s success in stabilizing the reeling financial markets and unfreezing credit. In remarks to faculty and students at […]

Ben Bernanke has spoken.  The Fed chairman and the Federal Reserve moved recently to stimulate the economy when the policy-making committee cut the federal funds rate – the rate at which banks lend to each other – to just one percent.  This represents a half percentage point cut from the previous 1.5 percent rate.  By […]

Contrary to the recent grim news about home foreclosures, bank failures, the credit crunch, rising unemployment rates, soaring oil prices, inflation and stock-market jitters, the United States’ economy — surprisingly — grew by 3.3 percent during the second quarter of 2008. The economy grew at its fastest pace in nearly a year, thanks primarily to […]