WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke will be missing at this year's Jackson Hole symposium due to a personal scheduling conflict, a Fed spokesman said Monday.
It would have been the last opportunity for him to speak at the annual prestigious monetary policy symposium held in Wyoming, before his second term expires in January 2014. Bernanke has been the keynote speaker since 2006, after replacing former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, who served for nearly two decades in that post.
The last time a Fed chairman didn't address the conference was 25 years ago. Greenspan attended the conference, but did not speak at the event in 1988. It was only a year later that Greenspan started the tradition of the chairman offering the keynote speech at the conference.
Investors closely watch the economic symposium, sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, for signs that the central bank may be considering changing its policies. Over the last several years, Bernanke has hinted at potential policy actions the Federal Open Market Committee could take, and has followed through on those ideas.
The chairman's remarks in 2010 suggested that the Fed would start a second round of large-scale asset purchases, or quantitative easing. A few months later the Fed began making purchases in November.
A year later in 2011, the central bank undertook a second program to extend the maturities of assets on its balance sheet, known as Operation Twist only a month after Bernanke spoke at the conference.
Similarly, the Fed also began its third round of quantitative easing again shortly after the chairman's speech in Jackson Hole. The central bank decided in December to more than double the size of the program to $85 billion a month from $40 billion.
Bernanke, a former Princeton University professor, has repeatedly dodged questions about his future plans after the end of his second term. He has not said whether he would stay on for a third term, if asked by the president.
The chairman told reporters at his March 20 press conference that he's talked to the president about his future, but feels no personal obligation to continue to stay in his role until the Fed completes a wind down of its policies.
"I don't think that I'm the only person in the world who can manage the exit," Bernanke said.
