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 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.
George William Miller was an American businessman and investment banker who served as the 65th United States secretary of the treasury from 1979 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party,he also served as the 11th chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1978 to 1979. Miller was the first person to hold both of those posts.
Roger W. Ferguson Jr. is an American economist,attorney and corporate executive who served as the 17th vice chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1999 to 2006. Prior to his term as vice chairman,Ferguson served as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors,taking office in 1997. He was the first African-American vice chairman. After leaving the Fed,he served as president and CEO of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA) from 2008 to 2021. Ferguson has also been appointed to the board of directors of several companies.
Stanley Fischer is an Israeli-American economist who served as the 20th vice chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2017. Fischer previously served as the 8th governor of the Bank of Israel from 2005 to 2013. Born in Northern Rhodesia,he holds dual citizenship in Israel and the United States. He previously served as First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund and as Chief Economist of the World Bank. On January 10,2014,President Barack Obama nominated Fischer to the position of Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve. He is a senior advisor at BlackRock. On September 6,2017,Stanley Fischer announced that he was resigning as Vice-Chair for personal reasons effective October 13,2017,two days before his 74th birthday.
The Federal Reserve System has faced various criticisms since it was authorized in 1913. Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman and his fellow monetarist Anna Schwartz criticized the Fed's response to the Wall Street Crash of 1929 arguing that it greatly exacerbated the Great Depression. More recent prominent critics include former Congressman Ron Paul.
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 late-2000s 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.
Cathy E. Minehan was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston from 1994 until her retirement in July 2007. Minehan also served as a member of the Federal Open Market Committee,the body responsible for U.S. monetary policy. She was "appointed Dean of the School of Management of Simmons College,a private university,in August 2011 and is Managing Director of Arlington Advisory Partners,a private advisory services firm."
Frederic Stanley "Rick" Mishkin is an American economist and Alfred Lerner professor of Banking and Financial Institutions at the Graduate School of Business,Columbia University. He was a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from 2006 to 2008.
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.
Sir Paul Tucker is a British economist,central banker,and author. He was formerly the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England,with responsibility for financial stability,and served on the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee from June 2002 until October 2013 and its interim and then full Financial Policy Committee from June 2011. In November 2012 he was turned down for the position of governor in favour of Mark Carney. In June 2013,Tucker announced that he would leave the Bank of England,and later that he would be moving to Harvard. He was knighted in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to central banking. His first book,Unelected Power,was published in May 2018 and his second book,Global Discord was published in November 2022.
James Brian Bullard is the former chief executive officer and 12th president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis,a position he held from 2008 until August 14,2023. In July 2023,he was named dean of the Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. School of Business at Purdue University.
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.
The Federal Reserve Reform Act of 1977 enacted a number of reforms to the Federal Reserve,making it more accountable for its actions on monetary and fiscal policy and tasking it with the goal to "promote maximum employment,production,and price stability". The act explicitly established price stability as a national policy goal for the first time. It also required quarterly reports to Congress "concerning the ranges of monetary and credit aggregates for the upcoming 12 months." It also modified the selection of the Class B and C Reserve Bank Directors. Discrimination on the basis of race,creed,color,sex,or national origin was prohibited,and the composition of the directors was required to represent interests of "agriculture,commerce,industry,services,labor and consumers". The Federal Reserve Act,which created the Federal Reserve in 1913,made no mention of services,labor,and consumers. Finally,the act established Senate confirmation of chairmen and vice chairmen of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve Reform Act made the Federal Reserve more transparent to Congressional oversight.
Richard Harris Clarida is an American economist who served as the 21st Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve from 2018 to 2022. Clarida resigned his post on January 14,2022,to return from public service leave to teach at Columbia University for the spring term of 2022. He is the C. Lowell Harriss Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Columbia University and,from 2006 until September 2018,Global Strategic Advisor for PIMCO. He is notable for his contributions to dynamic stochastic general equilibrium theory and international monetary economics. He is a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and is a recipient of the Treasury Medal. He also was a proponent of the theory that inflation was transitory during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Marvin Seth Goodfriend was an American economist. He held the Allan H. Meltzer Professorship in economics at Carnegie Mellon University;he was previously the director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. Following his 2017 nomination to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors,the White House decided to forgo renominating Goodfriend at the beginning of the new term.
Christopher J. Waller is an American economist who is a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors since 2020. A nominee of then-President Donald Trump,he was confirmed by the Senate in December 2020,to serve through January 2030.
The vice chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is the second-highest officer of the Federal Reserve,after the chair of the Federal Reserve. In the absence of the chair,the vice chair presides over the meetings Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
