Bernanke Becomes Federal Reserve Chairman
Ben Bernanke begins his term as Federal Reserve chairman, succeeding Alan Greenspan and assuming leadership of monetary policy shortly before the housing and financial crises emerge.
Role range: 2006-2014
Historical biography archive · Updated 2026-11-03
Ben Shalom Bernanke Biography and Timeline
Follow Ben Shalom Bernanke through 22 dated historical records for United States of America.
Ben Shalom Bernanke, historical timeline
A chronological timeline drawn from matching World History Database records.
22Distinct records
1 of 1Page
2006–2013Years on this page
2006
2007
Discount Rate Cut During Credit Stress
The Federal Reserve cuts the primary credit rate by one-half percentage point and lengthens borrowing terms as strains in money and credit markets threaten to impair the orderly functioning of financial markets.
Role range: 2006-2014
Federal Funds Rate Cut as Crisis Deepens
The Federal Open Market Committee lowers the federal funds target by one-half percentage point to 4.75 percent, responding to tighter credit conditions and the risk that financial disruption could weaken economic growth.
Role range: 2006-2014
Term Auction Facility Established
The Federal Reserve establishes the Term Auction Facility and coordinates foreign-exchange swap arrangements with other central banks to improve the distribution of term funding during severe money-market pressures.
Role range: 2006-2014
2008
Term Securities Lending Facility
The Federal Reserve announces the Term Securities Lending Facility, offering primary dealers temporary exchanges of less-liquid securities for Treasury securities in order to ease strains in secured funding markets.
Role range: 2006-2014
Primary Dealer Credit Facility
The Federal Reserve creates the Primary Dealer Credit Facility to provide overnight secured funding to primary dealers, extending central-bank liquidity support to a critical part of the securities-market infrastructure.
Role range: 2006-2014
Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Money Market Facility
The Federal Reserve announces a facility to finance purchases of high-quality asset-backed commercial paper from money market mutual funds, helping those funds meet redemptions without forcing disruptive asset sales.
Role range: 2006-2014
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley Become Bank Holding Companies
The Federal Reserve approves Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as bank holding companies, bringing the two major investment banks under Federal Reserve consolidated supervision during the financial crisis.
Role range: 2006-2014
Commercial Paper Funding Facility
The Federal Reserve creates the Commercial Paper Funding Facility to purchase eligible commercial paper through a special-purpose vehicle and restore credit flows in a market heavily used for short-term business financing.
Role range: 2006-2014
Money Market Investor Funding Facility
The Federal Reserve announces the Money Market Investor Funding Facility to support a private-sector initiative designed to provide liquidity to money market investors and reduce pressure on short-term credit markets.
Role range: 2006-2014
Citigroup Support Package
Federal authorities announce a support package for Citigroup in which the Federal Reserve stands ready to provide financing against a pool of assets after specified loss protections, seeking to preserve financial stability.
Role range: 2006-2014
Agency Debt and Mortgage-Backed Securities Purchase Program
The Federal Reserve announces plans to purchase up to 100 billion dollars of government-sponsored enterprise debt and up to 500 billion dollars of agency mortgage-backed securities to reduce borrowing costs and support mortgage markets.
Role range: 2006-2014
Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility
The Federal Reserve announces the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, designed to support new lending to households and businesses by financing investors in highly rated asset-backed securities.
Role range: 2006-2014
2009
Large-Scale Asset Purchases Expanded
The Federal Open Market Committee greatly expands its large-scale asset purchases, adding up to 750 billion dollars of agency mortgage-backed securities, 100 billion dollars of agency debt, and 300 billion dollars of longer-term Treasury securities.
Role range: 2006-2014
2010
Mortgage Principal Reinvestment Policy
The Federal Open Market Committee decides to reinvest principal payments from agency debt and mortgage-backed securities into longer-term Treasury securities, preventing the Federal Reserve's securities holdings from shrinking as recovery slows.
Role range: 2006-2014
Second Large-Scale Treasury Purchase Program
The Federal Open Market Committee announces plans to purchase 600 billion dollars of longer-term Treasury securities by the end of the second quarter of 2011, a program widely known as the second round of quantitative easing.
Role range: 2006-2014
2011
Maturity Extension Program
The Federal Open Market Committee launches a maturity extension program that sells or redeems shorter-term Treasury securities while purchasing an equal amount of longer-term securities, putting downward pressure on longer-term interest rates.
Role range: 2006-2014
2012
Two Percent Inflation Objective
The Federal Open Market Committee publishes its first Statement on Longer-Run Goals and Monetary Policy Strategy and identifies two percent inflation, measured by the personal consumption expenditures price index, as most consistent with its mandate over the longer run.
Role range: 2006-2014
Maturity Extension Program Expanded
The Federal Open Market Committee extends the maturity extension program through the end of 2012, planning additional purchases and sales of Treasury securities that further lengthen the average maturity of Federal Reserve holdings.
Role range: 2006-2014
Open-Ended Mortgage-Backed Securities Purchases
The Federal Open Market Committee announces purchases of 40 billion dollars of agency mortgage-backed securities per month and states that asset purchases can continue and be adjusted until the labour-market outlook improves substantially.
Role range: 2006-2014
Treasury Purchases and Economic Threshold Guidance
The Federal Open Market Committee adds purchases of 45 billion dollars of longer-term Treasury securities per month and introduces explicit unemployment and inflation thresholds to help explain how long exceptionally low interest rates may remain appropriate.
Role range: 2006-2014
2013
Asset Purchase Taper Begins
The Federal Open Market Committee decides to reduce the monthly pace of agency mortgage-backed securities and Treasury purchases beginning in January 2014, starting the gradual taper of its post-crisis quantitative-easing program.
Role range: 2006-2014
Records, sources and methodology
These dates and descriptions come from the historical_events database. Exact duplicate records have been collapsed. Names are grouped by the country, Name 2 and Name 1 fields; records with missing Name 2 cannot be reliably assigned to an individual biography. Check the underlying sources before formal citation.