The Federal Reserve System is the central banking system of the United States. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a series of financial panics led to the desire for central control of the monetary system in order to alleviate financial crises. Over the years, events such as the Great Depression in the 1930s and the Great Recession during the 2000s have led to the expansion of the roles and responsibilities of the Federal Reserve System.
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many international financial centers. Goldman Sachs is the second-largest investment bank in the world by revenue and is ranked 55th on the Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. In the Forbes Global 2000 of 2024, Goldman Sachs ranked 23rd. It is considered a systemically important financial institution by the Financial Stability Board.
The chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is the head of the Federal Reserve, and is the active executive officer of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The chairman presides at meetings of the Board.
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is a committee within the Federal Reserve System that is charged under United States law with overseeing the nation's open market operations. This Federal Reserve committee makes key decisions about interest rates and the growth of the United States money supply. Under the terms of the original Federal Reserve Act, each of the Federal Reserve banks was authorized to buy and sell in the open market bonds and short term obligations of the United States Government, bank acceptances, cable transfers, and bills of exchange. Hence, the reserve banks were at times bidding against each other in the open market. In 1922, an informal committee was established to execute purchases and sales. The Banking Act of 1933 formed an official FOMC.
Stephen Friedman is an American economist. He is a former chairman of the U.S. President's Intelligence Advisory Board and former chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He was nominated on October 27, 2005, to replace Brent Scowcroft in the position.
The Federal Reserve System, commonly known as "the Fed," has faced various criticisms since its establishment in 1913. Critics have questioned its effectiveness in managing inflation, regulating the banking system, and stabilizing the economy. Notable critics include Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman and his fellow monetarist Anna Schwartz, who argued that the Fed's policies exacerbated the Great Depression. More recently, former Congressman Ron Paul has advocated for the abolition of the Fed and a return to a gold standard.
Ben Shalom Bernanke is an American economist who served as the 14th chairman of the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2014. After leaving the Federal Reserve, he was appointed a distinguished fellow at the Brookings Institution. During his tenure as chairman, Bernanke oversaw the Federal Reserve's response to the 2007–2008 financial crisis, for which he was named the 2009 Time Person of the Year. Before becoming Federal Reserve chairman, Bernanke was a tenured professor at Princeton University and chaired the Department of Economics there from 1996 to September 2002, when he went on public service leave. Bernanke was awarded the 2022 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, jointly with Douglas Diamond and Philip H. Dybvig, "for research on banks and financial crises", more specifically for his analysis of the Great Depression.
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, commonly known as the Federal Reserve Board, is the main governing body of the Federal Reserve System. It is charged with overseeing the Federal Reserve Banks and with helping implement the monetary policy of the United States. Governors are appointed by the president of the United States and confirmed by the Senate for staggered 14-year terms. It is headquartered in the Eccles Building on Constitution Avenue, N.W. in Washington, D.C.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, commonly known as the Boston Fed, is responsible for the First District of the Federal Reserve, which covers New England: Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont and all of Connecticut except Fairfield County. The code of the Bank is A1, meaning that dollar bills from this Bank will have the letter A on them. The Boston Fed describes its mission as promoting "growth and financial stability in New England and the nation". The Boston Fed also includes the New England Public Policy Center.
Edward Gerald Corrigan was an American banker who was the seventh President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Vice-Chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee. Corrigan served as a partner and managing director in the Office of the Chairman at Goldman Sachs and was appointed chairman of GS Bank USA, the bank holding company of Goldman Sachs, in September 2008 until retiring in 2016. He was also a member of the Group of Thirty, an influential international body of leading financiers and academics.
Abby Joseph Cohen is an American economist and financial analyst on Wall Street. She is a professor of business at Columbia Business School. In 1999, she was first named as one of the most powerful women in business by Fortune Magazine. Later accolades included being named the second most powerful woman in finance by American Banker Magazine and one of the 30 most powerful women in America by Ladies Home Journal. Cohen has been included in Barron's 100 most influential women in finance every year since the list's inception.
Kevin Maxwell Warsh is an American financier and bank executive who served as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from 2006 to 2011.
Samuel Osiah Thier was professor of Medicine and Health Care Policy at Harvard University. He earned his medical degree at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in 1960. He previously served as the president of Brandeis University from 1991–1994 and the president of the Massachusetts General Hospital from 1994-96.
William C. Dudley is an American economist who served as the president of Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 2009 to 2018 and as vice-chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee. He was appointed to the position on January 27, 2009, following the confirmation of his predecessor, Timothy F. Geithner, as United States Secretary of the Treasury.
Robert Steven Kaplan served as the president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas from 2015 until 2021 and is a long-time Goldman Sachs executive, where he currently serves as vice chairman.
Raphael W. Bostic is an American economist, academic, and public servant who has served as the 15th president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta since 2017. During his academic career, Bostic served as chair of the Department of Governance, Management, and the Policy Process at the Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California.
Susan M. Collins is an American economist who has served as the 14th president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston since July 1, 2022. She is the first African American woman and first woman of color to lead any of the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks. Collins previously served as the 16th provost and executive vice president for academic affairs of the University of Michigan from 2020 to 2022.
Steven Strongin is a Senior Advisor at Goldman Sachs. Previously, he was the head of Global Investment Research and chair of the Global Markets Institute at Goldman Sachs. He was a member of the Management Committee, Firmwide Client and Business Standards Committee and was also co-chair of the Firmwide Technology Risk Committee. Strongin's writing on economic policy, investing and financial trends is featured across many news sources including The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, and Business Insider. His article, “Beating Benchmarks,” won the Second Annual Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy Award for Outstanding Article after it was published in the Journal of Portfolio Management. He holds three patents for financial instruments. One of his patents was the Wavefront system, which describes how economic shocks ripple through the economy into company performance, market value and equity returns in the US market.
Julie Ann Remache is an American economist who currently works as selected deputy SOMA manager at the Federal Reserve of New York. Remache has worked at the Federal Reserve of New York since 2000, where she held several positions before being promoted to Senior VP in February 2015. She briefly worked in the private sector between 2008-2009, but returned to the Federal Reserve in January 2009 as Director for Portfolio Analytics. In this position, Remache was part of a team responsible for buying $1.25 trillion of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) as part of the Federal Reserve's MBS purchase program during the 2007–2008 financial crisis.
