Time magazine names Bernanke 'Person of the Year'

[Ghost in the Machine]

Time magazine names Bernanke 'Person of the Year'
Posted: Dec 16, 2009 7:47 AM EST
Updated: Dec 16, 2009 9:47 AM EST

NEW YORK (AP) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke (bur-NANG'-kee) has been named Time magazine's "Person of the Year" for 2009.


http://www.time.com


WTF!?!?!?

[tekisui]

1. Gag me. I guess he did play a vital role in f'ing it all up.

:puke:

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

2. As predicted by moi... it's not even a close call

Love him or hate him he was the prime mover of 2009

[Zynx]

4. Agreed. They've put some controversial choices on there before.

I happen to think that Bernanke did more than anyone to save us from a much worse economic disaster than what occurred. I also do not subscribe to these views of him being malevolent. He's an academic economist who has found himself in a very difficult position with virtually no model to go by on how to get out of it. There were no easy answers after late 2007. "Let 'em fail" was not an answer and anyone with half a brain knows that.

[jschurchin]

3. Hey, didn't Time name............

Hitler Person of the Year, many moons ago(1938), and Stalin too, actually twice(1939 & 1942).

Maybe they should rename it The Time Destroyer of Nations Award. Because Ben "Helicopter" Bernanke definatly fits that description.

[Zynx]

5. If Bernanke had just sat on his hands and did nothing at all between July of 2007 and

now, do you think unemployment would be lower? This is a binary answer.

[jschurchin]

6. No.

Actually, we would be in the middle of a new banking system. There would no longer be Citi, BofA, Chase, etc. Housing and commercial defaults would have been recognized instead of being pushed onto Level 3 status.
Unemployment would be in the 35% range, but we would have delt with the nations ills. As it stands now, we are FUCKED.

[Zynx]

8. The negative externalities of widespread bank failures exceed the losses they should have taken.

Also, with the 35% unemployment rate, do you really think we would have a political atmosphere that would be subject to rational, deliberative discussion?

[jschurchin]

12. No. nt.

[theoldman]

7. Let's not forget that Bernanke inherited the mess from Greenspan.

We all want an instant cure for every problem. I estimate that it take about 20 years to correct the problems from a president who has served 8 years.

[Zynx]

9. Bernanke was pretty complicit in that mess, but luckily he wasn't as wedded to ideology

as Greenspan. Greenspan would have steered away from any government oversight of the banks at all.

[jschurchin]

10. When Greenspan left the Interest Rate was 5.25%

Granted, he was the one who Inflated the housing bubble. However, he used the interest rate, correctly I might add, to prick that bubble. The banking industry was going to take a rightfully deserved bath. They are the ones who mis priced the risk. Instead, Helicopter Ben proceeds to drop interest rates and begins to print money, money with NO TANGIBLE backing, in other words, out of thin air.

Then, and this is unbelievable, Ben decides to accept, WORTHLESS, MBS's and CDO's from the bank's for THIN AIR CASH. Now the Fed is in possession of $2.5 TRILLION of worthless collateral. The banking industry is flush with CASH, with no REAL backing, and guess who gets to hold the BILL.

"The Full Faith and CREDIT of The Untied States of America"

If Bernanke could have made a wrong move, he did. And our nation will never be the same because of it.

[global1]

11. I Would Have Chosen G.W. Bush........

because for a full year he didn't do anything.

[lamp_shade]

13. A good choice IMO.

[begin_within]

14. Bernanke is a person?

[MadBadger]

15. Its Sooo should have been those Twitterring Motherfuckers.

That shit took off this year, and I detest them for it.

[SIMPLYB1980]

16. Awesome!

Take that to the bank.

[Ghost in the Machine]

17. kick