Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke gives Harvard’s Class Day Speech for 2008

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, a 1975 Harvard graduate, was chosen by a student panel to speak at the Class Day ceremony for departing seniors on June 4, 2008. Bernanke followed recent speakers Bono of the rock group U2, comic actor Sacha Baron Cohen of the movie “Borat,” and last year, former president Bill Clinton.

His speech, entitled “Economic Challenges: 1975 and Now,” focused on the similarities and difference between the U.S. economy in the mid-1970s and today, specifically on the impact of soaring energy, agricultural and commodity prices. The chairman opened the speech with some reminiscences of his time at Harvard, but soon turned to a broad economic discussion. He drew parallels between the spokes in inflation and energy prices of today and of the 1970s, when he was a student at Harvard. Bernanke ended the speech by segueing from economic inequality to educational differences and then tying this to the senior class’ “excellent education” and their uncertain futures.

The comparison to 1975 in Bernanke’s speech is apt because the U.S. was experiencing inflation spurred by high oil prices and a Federal Reserve too eager to cut interest rates 30 years ago, according to David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor’s. In his speech, Bernanke signaled that he was done cutting the interest rates for now. Bernanke said a repeat of the ‘70s, where runaway inflation and stagnant economic growth gave rise to the term “stagflation,” is unlikely. Bernanke observed that differences between 1975 and today were “more telling than the similarities” and that the current situation differs from that of over 30 years ago “in large part because our economy and society have become much more flexible and able to adapt to difficult situations and new challenges.”

Bernanke graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University with a BA in Economics in 1975. He received his Ph.D. in economics in 1979 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was a professor at Princeton University before joining the board of governors of the Federal Reserve in 2002. President George W. Bush named him to succeed Alan Greenspan as chairman in 2005.

For the text of Bernanke’s speech, click here.

For more information on Ben S. Bernanke’s Class Day Speech, see the following articles:

Harvard Crimson
Boston Globe
New York Times
Bloomberg

For more information on Ben S. Bernanke, see his homepage Federal Reserve Website.