Ben S Bernanke: Reflections on a year of crisis Speech by Mr Ben S Bernanke, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve System, at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's Annual Economic Symposium, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 21 August 2009.
*  *  *  By the standards of recent decades, the economic environment at the time of this symposium one year ago was quite challenging. A year after the onset of the current crisis in August 2007, financial markets remained stressed, the economy was slowing, and inflation – driven by a global commodity boom – had risen significantly.