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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has been named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” for 2009.
Last year’s winner was then-President-elect Barack Obama. The 2007 winner was Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Other previous winners have included Bono, President George W. Bush, and Amazon.com CEO and founder Jeff Bezos.
President Obama made a solid choice this week to reappoint current Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to a second four-year term. His initial four-year appointment by then-President Bush expires on January 31, 2010.
The President of the United States is typically viewed as the most powerful person on the planet. Surprisingly, the Chair of the Federal Reserve is typically viewed by many as the second most powerful.
Indeed, I would make the case that the Fed Chair, through his or her influence upon short-term interest rates has perhaps more influence on our day-to-day lives than does the President.
One more month…one more exceedingly painful U.S. employment report
We have now had seven consecutive terrible job reports since the American consumer was told “the sky was falling” last September 18 by Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke and then-U.S. Treasury Secretary Paulson. It was on that day that this dynamic duo emotionally and very publicly asked the U.S. Congress for $700,000,000,000 to fix financial markets.
That request, and the up-and-down discussion within the U.S. Congress during the following week, simply scared the American consumer to death. The consumer stopped spending…companies of all sizes adopted a “shoot first, ask questions later” approach to layoffs…and the economy dropped quickly. The rest, as they say, is history.
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