Kristin Forbes

[1][4] Forbes attended Concord High School and in 1988 was selected as a Presidential Scholar, earning a trip to Washington, D.C. to meet President Ronald Reagan in the White House Rose Garden.

[1][5] After graduating from high school, Forbes enrolled at Williams College, taking first-year courses in astrophysics, economics, religion, and psychology.

[5][6] She graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1992, receiving a BA in economics[1][5] and winning the David Wells prize for best undergraduate thesis.

[7] During her studies, Forbes spent three months traveling in India, and pursued research on financial contagion and the relationship between inequality and economic growth.

[1] After returning to MIT, Forbes was recruited by Gregory Mankiw to join the Council of Economic Advisers of George W. Bush,[1] where she became the youngest person in history to hold her position.

In the early months of her position, Forbes advocated against interest rises, arguing that insufficient information was available on whether inflationary pressures in the UK were being masked by the strengthening of the Pound sterling, and the corresponding fall in import prices.

[11] She discussed this tradeoff in her first public speech as a Monetary Policy Committee member, delivered at an event at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

[12] In November 2014, she emphasized that she placed "slightly more probability on the risk that the global economy could be somewhat stronger than in our baseline forecast", a stance that placed her on the hawkish wing of the nine-member committee.

[14] In the months after this vote, Forbes emphasized in public statements that uncertainty created by Brexit was less of a drag on growth than was previously expected,[15] and advocated against further monetary stimulus and rate cuts.