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Ben Bernanke, former Fed chair, shares economics Nobel for research on banks and crisis

By Ron Kampeas

(JTA) — Ben Bernanke, the Jewish former chairman of the federal reserve, shared the Nobel Prize for Economics with two other scholars for their work in examining how banks function in economic crises.

Bernanke was recognized for an influential 1983 paper, written when he was a professor at Stanford University, that examined the Depression era to show how runs on banks during economic uncertainty tend to exacerbate and broaden a crisis. His theories helped inform his handling of the 2008 econo...