Thursday, March 6, 2014

Think Tank for Name, Talk Circuit for Cash

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who recently joined the Brookings Institution as a Distinguished Fellow in Residence, will not be leaning on the venerable think tank for the majority of his cash intake during the next few years.

That is because Bernanke has started hitting the public speaking circuit, and it looks like he will bring in around $250,000 per speech, as he just did in Abu Dhabi this week with a 40-minute talk.  That conference, the Global Financial Markets Forum (GFMF), was sponsored by the National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD).  It was noted that with that one speech, Bernanke exceeded his $199,700 annual salary as Fed Chairman in 2013.

With one or two speeches, he will likely exceed his annual salary at Brookings.

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who was just named as Board Chair at the Center for Global Development (CGD), was also speaking at the same Abu Dhabi event, but it is highly unlikely he was paid the same amount as Bernanke.

Bernanke is also writing a book, so he likely will receive a large cash advance.  Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan received an $8 million cash advance for his book.