A Brief History of the Federal Reserve Bank

The Fed Today
Having played a critical role in managing the financial crisis of 2008-2009, the Fed must now deal with a new set of challenges. In a speech before the Economic Club of Washington DC, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke noted that though the worst of the crisis seems to be over, "financial firms must do a better job of managing the risks of their business, regulators — the Federal Reserve included — must complete a thoroughgoing overhaul of their approach to supervision, and the Congress should move forward in making needed changes to our system of financial regulation to avoid a similar crisis in the future. In particular, we must solve the problem of 'too big to fail.'"

• Ben Bernanke: TIME's 2009 Person of the Year