by Mark Silva
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, a student of the Great Depression who has fought to avert another one, is Time magazine's "person of the year.''
It was Bernanke, and then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who were said to have sucked the oxygen from a roomful of congressional leaders on Capitol Hill when they met last year to explain the gravity of the credit crisis that was unfolding -- a crisis which led to an extraordinary federal intervention in the financial markets and then auto industry.
Bernanke has since won another term as Federal Reserve Chairman, reappointed by President Barack Obama. And now he's won a Time cover..
Time chose Bernanke over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Gen. Stanley McChyrstal, "the Chinese worker'' and more.
"We came very, very close to a depression,'' Bernanke tells Time. "The markets were in anaphylactic shock. I'm not happy with where we are, but it's a lot better than where we could be....Of course there were things we could have done better, but this was a perfect storm."
Bernanke on unemployment: "The additional steps aren't as obvious or clear as the ones we've already taken. It's an enormous problem. There aren't easy solutions."
On questions about his handling of Lehman, AIG and Bear Stearns: "It's the price of success: people start to think you're omnipotent. We say we didn't have the authority, and it's 'Oh, you're the Fed. You could've come up with something.' "
On banker pay: "I think that bankers ought to recognize that the government and the taxpayer saved the financial system from utter collapse last year. And in recognizing that, I would think that bankers ought to look in the mirror and decide that perhaps there should be some more restraint in how much they pay themselves, given what the government and the taxpayer did to protect the system."
On his own background: "I'm not one of those people who look at this as some kind of video game. I come from Main Street, from a small town that's really depressed. This is all very real to me."
Comments
Shouldn't our messiah get it again this year?????
Posted by: BDD | December 16, 2009 10:18 AM
The quick actions of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and then Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson probably averted an even bigger financial meltdown and a possible worldwide depression. Bernanke does deserve the Time "Man of the Year" award. President Obama was correct in reappointing Bernanke as Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
Posted by: Depot- Jim | December 16, 2009 10:20 AM
Unfortunately many right wingers refuse to comprehend how close we came to a depression, and how important the stimulus packages supported by both Bush and Obama have been to cushioning the impact. We'd be a FAR worse spot right now...
Posted by: mike | December 16, 2009 10:25 AM
Wasn't it Bernanke who told Congress that he needed $700 billion immediately to save Wall Street; then, months later he admitted that he pulled that figure out of thin air - he provided no studies to justify that number?
Posted by: BC | December 16, 2009 10:26 AM
You mean it's not President B+ ???
The devil you say!
The runner-up should be Time Magazine's sole subscriber.
Posted by: Chris | December 16, 2009 10:27 AM
Bernanke bailed out Wall Street and the banks while Americans lost their jobs, houses, retirement funds and medical access and for this he is Time Magazine's man of the year?
If this weren't so outrageous it would be hilarious.
Sort of like Obama winning the Nobel peace prize while expanding the *war* in Afghanistan.
Whats wrong is now fashionabily right.
Posted by: Tawanda | December 16, 2009 11:15 AM
Too bad they do not go into the detail that it was Congress and their forcing of the banks to make bad loans and make it difficult for them to verify employment and ability to pay from their drive for everyone to own a house that caused the financial meltdown to begin with. Why does everyone give congress a pass on their responsibility for the financial mess? Sen Dodd and Rep Franks need to be held accountable.
Posted by: Keith Donaldson | December 16, 2009 11:15 AM
Whoever thinks he deserves this needs to cancel their TV, not to mention Time subscription..you are being hookwinked!
Posted by: Jason | December 16, 2009 12:12 PM
Just another left-wing rag that will cause its circulation to plummet even further.
Posted by: Shamus | December 16, 2009 12:22 PM
Obama and company are going to be pissed! Get ready to be blacklisted by Obama's media watchlisters. Conform or else!
Posted by: obamarama | December 16, 2009 12:30 PM
Posted by: Keith Donaldson | December 16, 2009 11:15 AM
;
Can you please show me the law that President Bush signed that resulted in banks being forced to make bad loans? If Bush did not sign this law that the all-powerful Dodd and Franks wrote then please explain why the Republican majority didn't send a bill to President Bush's desk to repeal this law that forced banks to make bad loans and not verify employment during their majority held from 2001-2006. Thanks!
Posted by: Saluki Slayer | December 16, 2009 3:04 PM
* * * * *
Posted by: mike | December 16, 2009 10:25 AM
.
Mike,
.
Let me put it to you this way: We are not out of the woods yet. Foreclosures are still happening, small businesses are still closing, and people are still losing their jobs. We also have commercial foreclosures to look forward to in our near future. I wouldn't be surprised if we have another bumper crop of failed banks, too - because of all those people and businesses going under water with their property. Bad economic factors - especially those that impose greater burdens on small business owners - could make the economy return to a downward trend. If I were you, I wouldn't lighten my grip on whatever you are clinging to.
Posted by: John W. | December 16, 2009 3:42 PM
Other past recipients of 'person of the year':
Adolf Hitler
Joseph Stalin
Ayatollah Khomeini
George H W Bush
George W Bush
Barack Obama
The 'person of the year' is due to the most negative or positive result--either direction away from 0--negative or positive impact.
Posted by: Vivian | December 16, 2009 3:42 PM
Nancy Pelosi?!
Come on! She was in the running?
This magazine should be
renamed to "Lost in Time"
since they obviously don't report from this plane of existance. Nancy Pelosi
my a$$! But then again Obama got the Nobel for doing nothing at all so why not Nancy.
Posted by: wingnut master | December 16, 2009 5:50 PM
This guy is not the answer, he's the problem. Instead of being rehired he should have been fired, and the resignations of Reid, Pelosi, Dodd, and Frank cheerfully accepted.
Posted by: Paul | December 22, 2009 8:18 PM