by Mark Frankland and Garret Payne
Ben Bernanke
Ben Bernanke is the current Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve. He has also held a position in former President George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers. He was the successor to Alan Greenspan. President Obama has also elected him to another 14-year term as chairman. He received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard College in 1972, graduating summa cum laude. In 1979 he earned a PhD. in economics for MIT. Out of college, he taught business at Stanford for over 20 years until he began teaching at Princeton along with being the Chair of the Economics Department until he was called into to public service in 2002. Bernanke has fallen under much scrutiny lately for his supposed shortcomings during the Merrill Lynch and Bank of the United States merger, as well as during the AIG bailout. Even so, Bernanke was named the 2009 Time Magazine Man of the Year.
Some of his important contributions include: the theory of irreversible investment, the credit channel for monetary policy, inflation targeting, causes of the great depression, and finally, the global saving glut. To learn more about these contributions in detail, please visit
Ben Bernanke should be studied in economics because he is the current Chairman of the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve. In addition, he is very good at understanding and explains macroeconomics well. He focuses on greatly on trying to keep the price of money and other goods stable. Thus, he is trying to deter inflation from setting in. Overall, he has many valuable thoughts on economics and the effects on the U.S. and world; he should be used a valuable asset to economics classes.
"Ben Bernanke Biography - Biography.com." Biography.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 May 2010. http://www.biography.com/articles/Ben-Bernanke-39371.
"FRB: Chairman Bernanke." Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 May 2010.
Marginal Revolution: Ben Bernanke, economist." Marginal Revolution. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 May 2010. http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2005/10/ben_bernanke_ec.html.
Adam Smith
Smith was the Scottish philosopher who became famous for his book, “The Wealth of Nations” written in 1776, which had a profound influence on modern economics and concepts of individual freedom. In 1751, Smith was appointed professor of logic at Glasgow University, transferring in 1752 to the chair of moral philosophy. His lectures covered the field of ethics, rhetoric, jurisprudence and political economy, or “police and revenue.”In 1778, he was appointed to a post of commissioner of customs in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is most often recognized for the expression “the invisible hand,” which he used to demonstrate how self-interest guides the most efficient use of resources in a nation's economy, with public welfare coming as a by-product. He died there on July 17, 1790, after an illness. At the end it was discovered that Smith had devoted a considerable part of his income to numerous secret acts of charity. Opposed (mercantilism) practice of maintaining a trade surplus on the belief that doing so increased wealth as Adam Smith saw no role for government in economic life. Smith told other countries that it was not smart to keep American colonies. Explained why wage rates differed. I.E. wages would be higher for dirty and unsafe jobs.title. (n.d.). Adam Smith: The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. Library of Economics and Liberty. Library of Economics and Liberty. Retrieved April 28, 2010, from http://www.econlib.org/library/E
Karl Marx
Born on May 5, 1818 and died on March 14, 1883. He was a German economist, philosopher, and revolutionist whose writings form the basis of the body of ideas known as Marxism. He studied philosophy at universities in Bonn and Berlin, earning his doctorate in Jena at the age of twenty-three. His early radicalism, first as a member of the Young Hegelian, then as editor of a newspaper suppressed for its derisive social and political content, preempted any career aspirations in academia and forced him to flee to Paris in 1843. Marx placed great value on economic forces for explaining social structures. He argued that institutions such as church, education and the state evolved to support the capitalist class. But, Marx was revolutionary in placing so much emphasis on the power of economic forces to influence society. This led to Marx's first work - Communism Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844. This philosophical work sought to show Communism as a moral force for good to overcome the alienation of labor under capitalism. Karl Marx Economic Theories; Marx's system is a mixture of philosophical, sociological, and economic analysis; therefore, it is somewhat of an injustice to separate the purely economic theories from the rest. Convinced of the inevitable collapse of capitalism, Marx applied his theory of history to the society of his time as he searched for contradictions between the forces and relations of production.
It is important that we study the entire economist that we have covered in class, because they all have different views and theories on the economy. If we look at each of the economist we have gone over in class, we have to understand that they all came from different time periods and different economic conditions when they were studying their beliefs. Having understand their view points and from every angle of an economy, they have helped economist of today with the problems that have been plaguing our nation and around the world. Hopefully by our class reading up on the economist that we have gone over in class we can all walk away with some sort of information that will help us in the future."Karl Marx: The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics Library of Economics and Liberty." Library of Economics and Liberty. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 May 2010. http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Marx.html.
Timothy Geithner
Currently Tim serves as the Secretary of the United States Department of the Treasury. Tim F. Geithner has two major duties on his resume that he is dealing with today. His first job title is president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York which he has been doing since 2003. His other job is more recent, which he was rewarded in 2009 is the 75th Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. Geithner was recently in the news for his visit to Beijing last week. The reason he did this was for the two countries to re-evaluate their exchange rate. He hopes to have a deal in place in the very near future. While these talks were going on he met with Chinese vice Premier Wang Qishan in Beijing. He is the main counterpart that Geithner dealt with during his time in China. Tim Geithner is very important to our economics because of his ongoing business with China, India, Japan, and etc.Sources
Fray, K. (2010, April 11). Economic Outlook: China and US set to reassure. Retrieved April 11, 2010, from http://www.ft.com/
Timothy F. Geithner. (2009, January). Retrieved April 11, 2010, from http://www.ny.frb.org/
"Geithner Says China to Pursue ‘Broader’ Role for Yuan - Business Exchange." Business Exchange. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 May 2010. http://bx.businessweek.com/timothy-geithner/view?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fapps%2Fnews%3Fpid%3D20601087%26sid%3DaHJyoQzsmagE
"Geithner to meet China's Wang on Thursday
Reuters." Business & Financial News, Breaking US & International News
Reuters.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 May 2010. <="" p="" www.reuters.com="">
Alan Greenspan
Alan Greenspan was the chairman of the US Federal Reserve Board, which oversees the Federal Reserve Bank. Greenspan began his career in the 1950s when he started a company that did economic advising. He was the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board under President Reagan during Black Monday. He ended his career on the Federal Reserve Board in 2006 after serving the longest term in history.
Greenspan was in the news when asked about ever being wrong in failing to impose "regulatory measures that could have prevented or mitigated the financial meltdown." He didn't answer, however. He only replied with this: "I was right 70% of time but I was wrong 30% of the time."
Greenspan was also in the news for supporting Obama’s administration that numbers are going up and momentum is building in terms of jobs in the USA. He said he believes that the odds of falling into a worse recession have significantly gone down, and that we are much improved from this time last year.
Berger, J. (n.d.). Greenspan cites economic momentum. New York times. Retrieved May 3, 2010, from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/05/business/economy/05econ.html?scp=9&sq=alan%20greenspan&st=cse
Alan Greenspan .org. (n.d.). Alan Greenspan.org - Biography, picture, videos, and quotes.
Retrieved May 3, 2010, from http://www.alangreenspan.org/
Lionel Robbins
A British economist, born on 22nd November 1898. He was the head of economics at the London School of Economics, which is a prestigious university located in London, England.Robbins was famous for his definition of economics as “it is a science which studies human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses”.
Robbins implied that by studying economics and the market trends then it allows assumptions and predictions to be made. Studying economics as a science could be classified as market research. When a company analyses the statistics of what have been sold successfully or unsuccessfully, it allows the company to modify, redesign or completely change their product.
(Robbins", 2008) www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Robbins.html
Milton Friedman
One of the most prominent advocate of free markets, Milton Friedman is an economic icon in today’s society. He was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal honoring economists under age forty for outstanding achievement, and the Nobel Prize in economics for “his achievements in the field of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory, and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilization policy.” He also served as an adviser to President Nixon and was the president of the American Economic Association in 1967. Friedman is an import icon to study because his knowledge in free markets and household incomes, are so in depth that he teaches how to budget your income effectively. He demonstrates these in his works such as, A theory of the Consumption Function, Capitalism and Freedom, Free to Choose, Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money, and Monetary History of the United States.
Liberty Fund, Inc. (2008). The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics . Retrieved from Library of Economics and Liberty: http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Friedman.html
"Milton Friedman - Autobiography." Nobelprize.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 May 2010. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/1976/friedman-autobio.html/
Larry Summers
Starting in 2009 Larry Summers is the director of the White House National Economic Council. He was the 1993 recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal for his work is several fields of economics and was Secretary of the Treasury for the last year and a half of the Clinton administration. Summers was on the staff of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Reagan and served as the economic adviser for the Dukakis campaign in 1988, served as Chief Economist for the World Bank until 1993, he was appointed Undersecretary for International Affairs and later in the United States Department of the Treasury under the Clinton administration. In 1995, he was promoted to Deputy Secretary of the Treasury under his long-time political mentor Robert Rubin. In 1999, he succeeded Rubin as Secretary of the Treasury. Lawrence Summers is currently the Secretary of the Treasury. While Summers has been there the United States used budget surpluses to repurchase Treasury debt for the first time since the 1920's, and extended the life of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. His importance has been on building a stronger economy, “so we don’t have debacles like the last couple of years again” he said. He also goes on to say that as a county we are losing up to 600,000 a month, but he does see that changing quickly. He reported that new employment figures which states that 162,000 jobs were created in March 2010 alone. Summers explains that as conditions get better, more people decide to look for work and are counted as in the labor force. He also expects continuous progress in job creation in the current year. He is in the news this week because he has taken himself out of politics because Obama did not pick him as his key financial advisor and he is not happy with the position he holds. He is making projections that the job market will get better and there will be more jobs for people. "U.S. Treasury - Biography of Secretary Lawrence Summers." United States - Department of The Treasury - Homepage. Web. 11 Apr. 2010. http://www.ustreas.gov/education/history/secretaries/lhsummers.shtml.
"Larry Summers Expects Jobs Growth to Accelerate West Orlando News Online 2010® Central Florida News, Info, Sports." Central Florida News, Information and Data West Orlando News Online. Web. 11 Apr. 2010. http://westorlandonews.com/2010/04/04/larry-summers-expects-jobs-growth-to-accelerate/.
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