Pimco just hired former Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke as its adviser
Pimco has appointed former US Fed chief Ben Bernanke – the second consulting job Bernanke has taken in the past couple of weeks.
Bernanke will "contribute his economic expertise and insights to the firm's investment process and periodically engage Pimco's clients", the investment manager said today.
Pimco chief executive Douglas Hodge said Pimco said Bernanke's "experience in navigating the global economy through the financial crisis" will provide "unique insights as we help our clients amid a challenging and uncertain period for global markets in coming years".
Job hunt
The former Fed chief has been on something of a roll when it comes to getting new jobs recently: earlier this month he was hired by Citadel to advise on developments in monetary policy, financial markets and the global economy.
At the time, Wall Street was up in arms, complaining about the "revolving door" between Washington and the finance sector.
But Bernanke said he was sensitive to the public's concerns, and chose Citadel because it wasn't regulated by the Fed. "I wanted to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest," he said.
Shock departures
The appointment comes after a year of high-profile departures at Pimco. In January last year chief executive Mohamed El-Erian announced his departure – he later said his daughter had inspired him to step down by writing a list of 22 events in her life he had missed.
That was followed by the sudden exit of founder and "bond king" Bill Gross, who quit in September to move to Janus Capital. His exit caused investors to flee, with $23.5bn (£14.5bn) of outflows from Pimco's flagship fund in the week following.
Finally, in February this year Paul McCulley, Pimco's managing director and chief economist, also announced his resignation – months after he had started. At the time, McCulley said he had accepted the position to "work side-by-side with Bill Gross".
"My mission here is complete," he added.