Time magazine announced today that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is their 2009 Person of the Year. The editors explained that:
But the main reason Ben Shalom Bernanke is TIME's Person of the Year for 2009 is that he is the most important player guiding the world's most important economy. His creative leadership helped ensure that 2009 was a period of weak recovery rather than catastrophic depression, and he still wields unrivaled power over our money, our jobs, our savings and our national future. The decisions he has made, and those he has yet to make, will shape the path of our prosperity, the direction of our politics and our relationship to the world.
Ironically, the declaration comes as critics of his in Congress are trying to use the debate on his nomination for another four-year term to reduce his autonomy. On Thursday, the Senate Banking Committee is set to approve his nomination and send it to the full Senate for a vote. But GOP Senators Jim DeMint of South Carolina and David Vitter of Louisiana say they'll block it until the Senate considers a measure sponsored by Vermont's Bernie Sanders that would subject the Fed's monetary-policy making to Congressional audits.
