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Expert Bio
Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., is the Steven A Tananbaum Distinguished Fellow for International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the immediate past President and Chief Executive Officer of TIAA, the leading provider of retirement services in the academic, research, medical, and cultural fields and a Fortune 100 financial services organization.
Dr. Ferguson is the former Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve System. He represented the Federal Reserve on several international policy groups and served on key Federal Reserve System committees, including Payment System Oversight, Reserve Bank Operations, and Supervision and Regulation. As the only Governor in Washington, D.C. on 9/11, he led the Fed’s initial response to the terrorist attacks, taking actions that kept the U.S. financial system functioning while reassuring the global financial community that the U.S. economy would not be paralyzed.
Prior to joining TIAA in April 2008, Dr. Ferguson was head of financial services for Swiss Re, Chairman of Swiss Re America Holding Corporation, and a member of the company’s executive committee. From 1984 to 1997, he was an Associate and Partner at McKinsey & Company. He began his career as an attorney at the New York office of Davis Polk & Wardwell.
Dr. Ferguson serves on the boards of Alphabet, Inc.; Corning, Inc, and International Flavors & Fragrances, Inc. He is also active as an advisor and board member for various private fintech companies.
Dr. Ferguson is a member of the Smithsonian Institution’s Board of Regents and the Norton Museum of Art. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and co-chairs its Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education. He serves on the boards of the Institute for Advanced Study, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as well as other non-profit organizations. He is a fellow of the American Philosophical Society and a member of the Economic Club of New York, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Group of Thirty, and the National Association for Business Economics.
Dr. Ferguson served on President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, as well as its predecessor, the Economic Recovery Advisory Board, and he co-chaired the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on the Long-Run Macro-Economic Effects of the Aging U.S. Population.
Dr. Ferguson holds a B.A., J.D., and a Ph.D. in economics, all from Harvard University.
Current Projects
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While social welfare is integral to Nordic capitalism, Scandinavian countries are still market economies that had strong economic growth through the twentieth century and currently enjoy some of the highest standards of living in the world. However, these countries face problems of their own, such as an aging workforce and difficulties in integrating immigrants into the labor force and society at large.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping has gone much further than analysts had predicted he would in state control of the private sector in China and departure from a consensus based authoritarian system to one-man rule.
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High inflation during the 1950s shared many similarities to today’s rising prices, including a supply crunch due to a national emergency.
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Higher inflation has led to calls for price controls and a reexamination of the relationship between inflation and employment. History offers some helpful lessons.
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Truck-driver shortages, “lean” inventories, and an overreliance on China plagued global supply chains long before the pandemic. Permanently addressing these and other issues will help the United States and rest of the world better cope with the next shock.
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U.S. lawmakers are at loggerheads over raising the limit on government borrowing. Here’s what to know about the debate.
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Higher inflation has sparked a fierce debate among economists and generated enormous interest in the Fed’s response, which has far-reaching implications for the U.S. and global economies.
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Some experts are sounding the alarm over rising inflation in the United States, despite assurances from the Federal Reserve. Here’s what to know.