Just as Janet L. Yellen was sworn in as the first woman to head the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke announced his next move on Monday.
The former fed chief, who saw the country through a recovery from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, will join Brookings' Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy.
The Washington-based think tank says in a press release:
"In the past few years, Mr. Bernanke has been presiding over an historic experiment in monetary policy — more than five years of zero interest rates (so far) and trillions of dollars in bond-buying, a controversial approach aimed at restoring growth to the American economy.
"Ben Bernanke won't have to sit through any more meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee or deliver the Fed's semi-annual testimony to an occasionally hostile Congress or listen to complaints from emerging-market central bankers when central bankers gather in Basel, Switzerland. He won't have to check the computer screen to see what's been happening in Asian markets when he gets up every morning.
"He will, instead, have time to reflect on what just happened. ' I was kind of like if you're in a car wreck. You're mostly involved in trying to avoid going off the bridge. And then later on you say, "Oh, my God," ' he said here recently."
The Federal Reserve announced that Yellen's oath of office was administered Monday morning by Federal Reserve Governor Daniel K. Tarullo.
"She took the oath in a brief ceremony Monday in front of a fireplace in the Fed's massive board room. Her husband, Nobel-winning economist George Akerloff, was present as were other Fed board members and Fed staff.
"The 67-year-old Yellen made no remarks at her swearing in but did smile to acknowledge the applause of the assembled group."
Yellen's term as chair ends Feb. 3, 2018.
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