Former Fed chairman offers his wisdom for hefty fees

Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has been making a fortune from delivering lectures since his retirement from the Fed. He is usually paid 200,000 U.S. dollars per speaking engagement in the U.S., but the fee goes up to 400,000 dollars for Asian engagements. Given that he was paid 200,000 dollars a year as a Fed chairman, he is making the same amount of money just in a few hours by speaking to the audience.

The New York Times said that his value in the market is increasing in the financial market because the industry people highly appreciate his accurate analysis and forecasting abilities. For these people, listening to the background of the current monetary policies directly from the person who actually designed those policies is definitely worth the big money. JPMorgan`s Chief U.S. Economist Michael Feroli, said in an interview with Reuters that people cannot but listen to him because he is one of the best monetary experts in existence.

Reportedly, he was paid a hefty fee for the small gathering in March at Le Bernardin, a top-notch seafood restaurant in New York. According to The New York Times on Tuesday, one of the hedge fund managers who participated in the dinner has made big profits by making an investment portfolio based on Bernanke’s advice. In early March, Bernanke spoke in Abu Dhabi of the U.A.E, Johannesburg of South Africa and Houston of the U.S. Because of the extremely high fees, even UBS, the largest bank in Switzerland and Goldman Sachs, one of the most privileged investment banks in the U.S. have gave up hiring him as an adviser.

Only in three days after the retirement, Bernanke started to work at the Hutchins Center of Brookings Institution in Washington D.C., as a special researcher. He plans to work on a book about his time at the Fed.