Pacific Investment Management Company, LLC (commonly called PIMCO), is an investment firm headquartered in Newport Beach, California. PIMCO is led by co-founder William H. Gross, (usually known as Bill Gross) who serves as Co-Chief Investment Officer, and Mohamed A. El-Erian, the other Co-CIO as well as the firm's CEO. It is the world’s largest bond investor.

Gross manages the Total Return Fund, the world’s largest mutual fund with assets of $242.7 billion as of June 30, 2011. He co-founded the firm in 1971, launching with $12 million of assets. Previously, PIMCO had functioned as a unit of Pacific Life Insurance Co., managing separate accounts for that insurer's clients. In 2000, PIMCO was acquired by Allianz SE, a large global financial services company based in Germany, but the firm continues to operate as an autonomous subsidiary of Allianz.

PIMCO oversees investments totaling more than $1.7 trillion on behalf of a wide range of clients, including millions of retirement savers, public and private pension plans, educational institutions, central banks, foundations and endowments, among others.

Ben Shalom Bernanke (English pronunciation: /bərˈnæŋki/ bər-NANG-kee; born December 13, 1953) is an American economist and currently chairman of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States. During his tenure as chairman, Bernanke has overseen the Federal Reserve's response to the late-2000s financial crisis.

Before becoming Federal Reserve chairman, Bernanke was a tenured professor at Princeton University and chaired the department of economics there from 1996 to September 2002, when he went on public service leave. From 2002 until 2005, he was a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, proposed the Bernanke Doctrine, and first discussed "the Great Moderation"--the theory that traditional business cycles have declined in volatility in recent decades through structural changes that have occurred in the international economy, particularly increases in the economic stability of developing nations, diminishing the influence of macroeconomic (monetary and fiscal) policy. Bernanke then served as chairman of President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers before President Bush appointed him on February 1, 2006, to be chairman of the United States Federal Reserve. Bernanke was confirmed for a second term as chairman on January 28, 2010, after being re-nominated by President Barack Obama.