Time Magazine bestowed its Person of the Year 2009 honor to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke – the “most powerful nerd on the planet,” who led the effort to save the world economy, the publication said.
That is high praise that also draws irony. Bernanke in recent weeks has weathered a heated confirmation hearing, having to defend his bailout-driven actions during the financial crisis of the last 15 months. He has been under fire from lawmakers and proposed reform which passed the U.S. House week. It includes first-ever audits of the Fed and an overall chipping away at its historic authority.
Nonetheless, Time described the former professor from Princeton University, a leading scholar of the Great Depression, as just the right leader to maneuver the economy out of the worst crisis since the 1930s.
“Ever since global credit markets began imploding, its mild-mannered chairman has dramatically expanded those powers and reinvented the Fed,” Time writes. “So when turbulence in U.S. housing markets metastasized into the worst global financial crisis in more than 75 years, he conjured up trillions of new dollars and blasted them into the economy; engineered massive public rescues of failing private companies; ratcheted down interest rates to zero…
“He didn’t just reshape U.S. monetary policy; he led an effort to save the world economy.”
In an interview with Time, Bernanke said he understands people’s frustrations over the anemic economic recovery.
“I understand why people are frustrated. I’m frustrated too,” Bernanke says. “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.”
Bernanke said the future actions of the Fed are more uncertain. For now, the Fed is merely instructing its supervisors to lend more. “The days of whatever it takes are apparently over,” Time said.
“The additional steps aren’t as obvious or clear as the ones we’ve already taken,” Bernanke told the magazine. “It’s an enormous problem. There aren’t easy solutions.”
As to the broad support in Congress to strip the Fed of its authority, Bernanke simply said:
“Obviously, I haven’t succeeded in defusing the political concerns about the Fed.”
