Bernanke, looking relaxed in a grey suit and tie, said that after stepping down, he would write more about his experiences in the crisis to explain his side of the story. Business News Updated. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke pauses during a news conference following a two-day policy session in Washington November 2, Needless to say, my opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my former colleagues at the Fed.
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Thanks for reading. Eberly and James H. Ben S. Bernanke, like other economic historians, characterized the Great Depression as a disaster because of its length, depth, and consequences. Industrial production plummeted. Unemployment soared. Families suffered. Marriage rates fell. The contraction began in the United States and spread around the globe.
The Depression was the longest and deepest downturn in the history of the United States and the modern industrial economy. The Great Depression began in August , when the economic expansion of the Roaring Twenties came to an end. A series of financial crises punctuated the contraction. These crises included a stock market crash in , a series of regional banking panics in and , and a series of national and international financial crises from through The downturn hit bottom in March , when the commercial banking system collapsed and President Roosevelt declared a national banking holiday.
Return to full output and employment occurred during the Second World War. Each district had a governor who set policies for his district, although some decisions required approval of the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, DC. The Board lacked the authority and tools to act on its own and struggled to coordinate policies across districts. The governors and the Board understood the need for coordination; frequently corresponded concerning important issues; and established procedures and programs, such as the Open Market Investment Committee, to institutionalize cooperation.
When these efforts yielded consensus, monetary policy could be swift and effective. But when the governors disagreed, districts could and sometimes did pursue independent and occasionally contradictory courses of action.
The governors disagreed on many issues, because at the time and for decades thereafter, experts disagreed about the best course of action and even about the correct conceptual framework for determining optimal policy. Information about the economy became available with long and variable lags. Experts within the Federal Reserve, in the business community, and among policymakers in Washington, DC, had different perceptions of events and advocated different solutions to problems.
Researchers debated these issues for decades. Consensus emerged gradually. The views in this essay reflect conclusions expressed in the writings of three recent chairmen, Paul Volcke r, Alan Greenspan , and Ben Bernanke. Still, Bernanke says aggregate statistics can mask important information about how individual Americans are faring. His speech Monday was the latest foray into a relatively new specialty in economics known as "happiness studies.
In that speech, he said research has found that once basic material needs are met, more wealth doesn't necessarily make people happier. In his remarks Monday, Bernanke turned to the more practical — and difficult — task of measuring a subjective emotion. So far, most efforts have involved surveys in which people are asked about whether they are happy and what contributes to their happiness. Those surveys have found some consistent answers: physical and mental health, the strength of family and community ties, a sense of control over one's life, and opportunities for leisure activity.
The Kingdom of Bhutan has been tracking happiness for four decades. The tiny Himalayan nation stopped tracking gross national product in and instead switched to measuring Gross National Happiness.
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