Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke, along with Douglas W. Diamond and Philip H. Dybvig, has been awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel — popularly known as the Nobel Prize for economics — for research on banks and financial crises.
What Happened: Following the announcement, Ray Dalio, billionaire investor and founder of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, praised Bernanke in a series of tweets.
Bernanke winning the Nobel Prize “is a delight for me to see because I admire and like the man so much," Dalio said.
"[He] is one of a very rare breed that brings together knowledge that can only be gained via academic research with the knowledge that comes from being a practitioner.”
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The billionaire investor said Bernanke has acquired this knowledge over many years in his "unwavering pursuit of learning what's true and using that knowledge to do the right things to improve people's lives."
“I personally know [Bernanke] to be a very capable and very good man who pursues the best paths possible using the powers of reason and courage, even when that is not in his interest and is painful for him. For those reasons, he is a hero to me,” Dalio tweeted.
..I personally know @benbernanke to be a very capable and very good man who pursues the best paths possible using the powers of reason and courage, even when that is not in his interest and is painful for him. For those reasons he is a hero to me. (4/5)
— Ray Dalio (@RayDalio) October 10, 2022
Bernanke’s Contribution: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said Ben Bernanke analyzed the Great Depression of the 1930s, the worst economic crisis in modern history. “Among other things, he showed how bank runs were a decisive factor in the crisis becoming so deep and prolonged. When the banks collapsed, valuable information about borrowers was lost and could not be recreated quickly,” it said.
It was in the backdrop of the 2008 financial crisis that Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC) agreed to buy Merrill Lynch and Bear Sterns was sold to JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM).
Dalio pointed out that even his disagreements with Bernanke reflect their shared love of thoughtful disagreements.
“Even our disagreements reflect our shared loving of thoughtful disagreement in pursuit of the best answers. Congratulations, Ben!” Dalio said.
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