Stanley "Stan" Fischer is an American-Israeli
economistAn economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
and the current Governor of the
Bank of IsraelThe Bank of Israel is the central bank of Israel. It is located in Kiryat HaMemshala in Israel's capital city of Jerusalem, with a branch office in Tel Aviv. The current governor is Stanley Fischer.-History:...
. He previously served as
Chief EconomistThe World Bank Chief Economist provides intellectual leadership and direction to the Bank’s overall development strategy and economic research agenda, at global, regional and country levels...
at the
World BankThe World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
.
Biography
Born in
Northern RhodesiaNorthern Rhodesia was a territory in south central Africa, formed in 1911. It became independent in 1964 as Zambia.It was initially administered under charter by the British South Africa Company and formed by it in 1911 by amalgamating North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia...
(now
ZambiaZambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
) on 15 October 1943, he obtained his
B.Sc.A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
and
M.Sc.A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
at the
London School of EconomicsThe London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
from 1962–1966 and his
Ph.D.Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
at MIT in 1969, all in
economicsEconomics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
.
Academic career
He was a professor at the
MIT Sloan School of ManagementThe MIT Sloan School of Management is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Massachusetts....
from 1977 to 1988, where he authored two popular economics textbooks, Macroeconomics (with
Rüdiger DornbuschRüdiger "Rudi" Dornbusch was a German economist who worked for most of his career in the United States.-Biography:...
and Richard Startz), and Lectures on Macroeconomics (with
Olivier BlanchardOlivier Jean Blanchard is currently the chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, a post he has held since September 1, 2008. He is also the Class of 1941 Professor of Economics at MIT, though he is currently on leave. Blanchard is one of the most cited economists in the world, according...
). He was also
Ben BernankeBen Shalom Bernanke is an American economist, and the current Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States. During his tenure as Chairman, Bernanke has overseen the response of the Federal Reserve to late-2000s financial crisis....
's and Greg Mankiw's Ph.D. thesis advisor.
Banking career
From January 1988 to August 1990 he was
Vice President, Development Economics and Chief EconomistThe World Bank Chief Economist provides intellectual leadership and direction to the Bank’s overall development strategy and economic research agenda, at global, regional and country levels...
at the World Bank. He then became the First Deputy Managing Director of the
International Monetary FundThe International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...
(IMF), from September 1994 until the end of August 2001. By the end of 2001, Fischer had joined the influential Washington-based financial advisory body, the
Group of ThirtyThe Group of Thirty, often abbreviated to G30, is an international body of leading financiers and academics which aims to deepen understanding of economic and financial issues and to examine consequences of decisions made in the public and private sectors related to these issues...
. After leaving the IMF, he served as Vice Chairman of
CitigroupCitigroup Inc. or Citi is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Citigroup was formed from one of the world's largest mergers in history by combining the banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomerate...
, President of Citigroup International, and Head of the Public Sector Client Group. Fischer worked at Citigroup from February, 2002 to April, 2005. He became Governor of the
Bank of IsraelThe Bank of Israel is the central bank of Israel. It is located in Kiryat HaMemshala in Israel's capital city of Jerusalem, with a branch office in Tel Aviv. The current governor is Stanley Fischer.-History:...
on May 1, 2005, replacing
David KleinDavid Klein served as the governor of the Bank of Israel from January 2000 to January 2005.Reuters . , The New York Times...
, who ended his term on January 16, 2005. Fischer became an Israeli citizen, the aforementioned action being a prerequisite to this appointment. He has been involved in the past with the Bank of Israel, having served as an American government adviser to
Israel's economic stabilization program in 1985The Economic Stabilization Plan was implemented in Israel in 1985 in response to the dire domestic economic situation of the early 1980s.The background to the crisis is that the years after the 1973 Yom Kippur War were a lost decade economically, as growth stalled, inflation soared and government...
. On May 2, 2010, Fischer was sworn in for a second term.
Under his management, in 2010, The Bank of Israel was ranked first among central banks for its efficient functioning, according to
IMD's World Competitiveness YearbookIMD - International Institute for Management Development is a non profit business school located in Lausanne, Switzerland.- History & Mission :...
.
Fischer has earned plaudits across the board for his handling of the Israeli economy in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. In September 2009, the Bank of Israel was the first bank in the developed world to raise its interest rates.
In 2009 and 2010, Fischer received an "A" rating on the Central Banker Report Card published by
Global Finance magazineGlobal Finance is an English-language monthly financial magazine.Joseph D. Giarraputo, the founder and former publisher of Venture, the magazine for entrepreneurs, in 1987 joined forces with Carl G. Burgen, Stephan Spahn, H. Allen Fernald, and Paolo Panerai to start a magazine on financial...
.
In June 2011, Fischer applied for the post of IMF managing director to replace
Dominique Strauss-KahnDominique Gaston André Strauss-Kahn , often referred to in the media, and by himself, as DSK, is a French economist, lawyer, politician, and member of the French Socialist Party...
, but was barred as the IMF stipulates that a new managing director must be no older than 65, and he was 67 at the time.
There is some discussion that his nationality may have influenced this decision.
Recognition
Fischer received an honorary doctorate from Hebrew University in 2006.In October 2010, Fischer was declared Central Bank Governor of the Year by Euromoney magazine.
Fischer received the award at a reception at the
Willard Intercontinental hotelThe Willard InterContinental Washington is an historic luxury Beaux-Arts hotel located at 1401 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C. Among its facilities are numerous luxurious guest rooms, several restaurants, the famed Round Robin Bar, the Peacock Alley series of luxury shops, and voluminous...
in Washington, D.C. during a World Bank and
International Monetary FundThe International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...
conference.
He is a member of the
Bilderberg GroupThe Bilderberg Group, Bilderberg conference, or Bilderberg Club is an annual, unofficial, invitation-only conference of approximately 120 to 140 guests from North America and Western Europe, most of whom are people of influence. About one-third are from government and politics, and two-thirds from...
and attended the Swiss 2011 Bilderberg conference in
St. MoritzSt. Moritz is a resort town in the Engadine valley in Switzerland. It is a municipality in the district of Maloja in the Swiss canton of Graubünden...
,
SwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
.
External links
- Profile at the Bank of Israel
The Bank of Israel is the central bank of Israel. It is located in Kiryat HaMemshala in Israel's capital city of Jerusalem, with a branch office in Tel Aviv. The current governor is Stanley Fischer.-History:...
- Profile at the International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...
- Profile at Bloomberg Businessweek
- Profile at Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
- Profile at the Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
- Profile at the Peterson Institute for International Economics
- Publications at the National Bureau of Economic Research
The National Bureau of Economic Research is an American private nonprofit research organization "committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic community." The NBER is well known for providing start and end...
- Column archive at Project Syndicate
Project Syndicate is an international not-for-profit newspaper syndicate and association of newspapers. It distributes commentaries and analysis by experts, activists, Nobel laureates, statesmen, economists, political thinkers, business leaders and academics to its member publications, and...
and MarketWatch
- Interview: Stanley Fischer, Commanding Heights, PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
, May 9, 2001
Articles
- "Exchange Rate Regimes: Is the Bipolar View Correct?", International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...
, Distinguished Lecture on Economics in Government, American Economic Association and the Society of Government Economists. Delivered at the Meetings of the American Economic Association, New Orleans, January 6, 2001
- Stanley Fischer: The Life of an Internationally Renowned Economist, Citigroup
Citigroup Inc. or Citi is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Citigroup was formed from one of the world's largest mergers in history by combining the banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomerate...
, August 13, 2004
- Why so gloomy on the global economy?, The Banker, 4 October 2004
- Citigroup's Fischer to Head Israel's Central Bank, Bloomberg
Bloomberg L.P. is an American privately held financial software, media, and data company. Bloomberg makes up one third of the $16 billion global financial data market with estimated revenue of $6.9 billion. Bloomberg L.P...
, January 9, 2005
- Israel looks to US for bank chief, BBC News
BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
, 10 January 2005
- C. Peter McColough Series on International Economics: The Israeli Economy: Thriving in a Complicated Environment, Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
, October 18, 2007