“Time” Person of the Year: Ben Bernanke

By Amanda Pendolino on December 16th, 2009

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President Obama may have a shiny new Nobel Peace Prize under his belt, but he’s not Time magazine’s Person of the Year. That honor goes to Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve Chairman (click here for the full article).

The 56-year-old from Georgia is a leading scholar of the Great Depression, and also has the unique distinction of being named to his post by both George W. Bush and Barack Obama. “He didn’t just reshape U.S. monetary policy,” the magazine said. “He led an effort to save the world economy.”

“He’s shy,” Time continues. ”He doesn’t do the D.C. dinner-party circuit; he prefers to eat at home with his wife, who still makes him do the dishes and take out the trash. Then they do crosswords or read. Because Ben Bernanke is a nerd. He just happens to be the most powerful nerd on the planet.” (Um, have they heard of Bill Gates?)

I know what you’re thinking…but doesn’t our economy suck? Why is this guy so great? ”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 insists that things would be much worse had the Fed not taken the actions it did. “We came very, very close to a depression … The markets were in anaphylactic shock,” he told Time. “I’m not happy with where we are, but it’s a lot better than where we could be.”