News of the finance

Yesterday, (September 19th, 2007), I received an influx of calls and emails regarding the fed rate cut  from the day before. This was great for me, because it was a welcomed opportunity to talk with customers and to help them relate the news to their daily lives. (I'll post in detail later about what the rate cut means for us. I'm still waiting for the markets to digest the decision.) However, I was more excited by how many of my customers are familiar with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Is Bernanke a household name?

Ben Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as the chairman of the Federal Reserve, and although he may have known this going in, our society has access to so much information now, that it seems everyone's an expert. Experts on stocks, real estate, mortgages, sports, you name it. 

While watching the Florida Gators play the Tennessee Vols at a local sports bar this past weekend,  our conversations consisted of 3 things: 

1. College Football
2. Our friends and families
3. The Federal Reserve's impending rate cut.

I'm not kidding, everyone had predictions, ".25%" "no it'll be .5%", "no, they won't do anything". Everyone was dropping Bernanke's name like a famous star or athlete. "Bernanke has no choice, he's going to have to bail the economy out," said one college football fan to another...

So how well do you really know Bernanke? And I don't mean stuff about Harvard, or his time spent at MIT, or Princeton. I'm talking the in-depth stuff, the nitty gritty. (ok, we are talking about the Chairman of the Federal Reserve here, so I'm not going to surprise you with any earth shattering news.) But, the next time you're hanging with friends, and you want to chime in on the Bernanke talk, here's some interesting stuff:

• Ben Shalom Bernanke was born Dec. 13, 1953, in Augusta, Ga
• Bernanke won the state spelling bee at age 11
• In high school, Bernanke scored 1,590 on his SAT, a near-perfect score.
• In high school he played the saxophone. (as did Greenspan, and let's not forget, Lisa Simpson.) Have any kids? Introduce to them the sax...
• He missed classes at MIT in 1975 because he was busy following the Red Sox in the World Series.
• He was a waiter at a place called "South of the Border". 

Now you have suitable knowledge to share about our famous economic wizard. As Bernanke works hard to keep our economy moving forward, we can officially accept him as a household name.

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