
I was a graduate student at Princeton University when Ben Bernanke was the chair of the economics department. I happened to have been in his office the day he was packing and preparing for his move to Washington DC after he had accepted an appointment to become a governor at the Federal Reserve in 2002. Bernanke had a large (200 litre) fish tank in his office. As I spoke to him that day, he mentioned not knowing what to do with his aquarium. I told him that if he did not care to keep it, that I would be happy to take it over. He agreed to my suggestion, and I went about using a dolly to transport it back to my residence on campus. I used the aquarium to raise food fish. I bought live fish from the local Asian supermarket and kept them in the tank until it was time for them to be eaten. I prepared the fish when friends were visiting and usually after we had a few beers. It was always a hilarious experience as I did not have a net to scoop out the fish. What ensued was a long struggle getting the slippery…