Ben Shalom Bernanke ; born December 13, 1953 is an American economist. He is a distinguished fellow at the Brookings Institution, from 2006 to 2014. During his tenure as chair, 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 chair, 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.

During Bernanke tenure, the M1 money supply rose by 203% in what will be remembered by history as one of the greatest money heist pulled by the corrupt financial system.