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.
Paul Adolph Volcker Jr. was an American economist who served as the 12th chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1979 to 1987. During his tenure as chairman,Volcker was widely credited with having ended the high levels of inflation seen in the United States throughout the 1970s and early 1980s,with measures known as the Volcker shock. He previously served as the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 1975 to 1979.
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.
Janet Louise Yellen is an American economist serving as the 78th United States secretary of the treasury since January 26,2021. She previously served as the 15th chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018. She is the first person to hold those positions having also led the White House Council of Economic Advisers and the first woman to hold either post.
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.
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 Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta,,is the sixth district of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks of the United States and is headquartered in midtown Atlanta,Georgia.
Dennis P. Lockhart is an American economist. He was the 14th President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta,serving from March 1,2007,through February 28,2017.
Lael Brainard is an American economist serving as the 14th director of the National Economic Council since February 21,2023. She previously served as the 22nd vice chair of the Federal Reserve between May 2022 and February 2023. Prior to her term as vice chair,Brainard served as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors,taking office in 2014. Before her appointment to the Federal Reserve,she served as the under secretary of the treasury for international affairs from 2010 to 2013.
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.
Narayana Rao Kocherlakota is an American economist and the Lionel W. McKenzie Professor of Economics at the University of Rochester. Previously,he served as the 12th president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis until December 31,2015. Appointed in 2009,he joined the Federal Open Markets Committee in 2011. In 2012,he was named one of the top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine.
Sarah Bloom Raskin is an American attorney and financial markets policymaker who served as the 13th United States Deputy Secretary of the Treasury from 2014 to 2017. Raskin previously served as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from 2010 to 2014. She also was Maryland Commissioner of Financial Regulation. She was a Rubenstein Fellow at Duke University. She is currently the Colin W. Brown Distinguished Professor of the Practice of Law at Duke Law School. She is also a Senior Fellow at the Duke Center on Risk. She also serves as a Partner at Kaya Partners,Ltd.,a climate advisory firm.
Jerome Hayden "Jay" Powell is an American attorney and investment banker who has served since 2018 as the 16th chair of the Federal Reserve.
Thomas I. Barkin is an American central banker,who became the eighth president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond on January 1,2018. He worked at global management consulting firm McKinsey &Company for 30 years in increasingly senior positions,including as global chief financial officer (CFO) and chief risk officer,with oversight of finance,legal and information technology functions,among others. He also served on the executive committee of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce,Emory University Board of Trustees member,and former board member and chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
Lisa DeNell Cook is an American economist who has served as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors since May 23,2022. She is the first African American woman and first woman of color to sit on the Board. Before her appointment to the Federal Reserve,she was elected to the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
Jean Nellie Liang is an economist who currently serves as President Joe Biden's Under Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance.
Mary Colleen Daly is an American economist,who became the 13th President and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco on October 1,2018. She serves on the Federal Reserve's rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee on a rotating basis. Previously,Daly was the Executive Vice President and Director of Research of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco,which she joined as an economist in 1996.
Philip Nathan Jefferson is an American economist who serves as vice chair of the Federal Reserve. He has been a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors since 2022. He was nominated for the position by President Joe Biden in January 2022,and was confirmed by the Senate in May 2022. Upon taking office,he became the fourth Black man to serve on the board.
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.
