Fed chief to speak at BC law commencement

(Associated Press photo)
Ben Bernanke has played a central role in the government's massive intervention to stimulate the economy.

By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff

Boston College has announced that Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke will speak at Boston College Law School's commencement May 22.

Bernanke has played a central role in the government's massive intervention to stimulate the economy. A graduate of Harvard and MIT, Bernanke succeeded former chairman Alan Greenspan in 2006.

"Dr. Bernanke is an incredibly accomplished man, in both the financial and academic worlds,'' BC Law Dean John Garvey said in a statement. "Few people have the kind of insights on the world's economic situation that he does."

Bernanke grew up in Dillon, S.C., and graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in economics in 1975, receiving his doctorate in economics from MIT in 1979.

A longtime economist at Princeton University, Bernanke came to the Fed in 2002.

Last year, the law school drew criticism when it chose US Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey as its commencement speaker because of his refusal to declare that waterboarding, a controversial interrogation technique, constitutes torture and was illegal. In what many saw as a concession to critics, the law school last year did not award its highest honor, the Founder's Medal, to Mukasey.

But Garvey said that decision predated the controversy and was designed to depoliticize the choice of commencement speakers.

Bernanke will not receive the medal or an honorary degree, the college said.

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