The Federal Reserve Chairman was selected by Time as its "2009 Person of the Year" and the in-depth piece on Bernanke by Michael Grunwald provides several different views of note. At a macro level, Grunwald writes of the role of the Fed in overseeing financial markets and financial meltdown at the latter part of the decade. At a more micro level, Grunwald details the steps that the Fed Chairman took to mitigate the impact of the recession and avert a second Great Depression.
Solid writing and it makes the case that while people could certainly quibble with some of the actions taken, Bernanke deserves huge credit for choosing action over inaction. As a student of the Depression, Bernanke felt that global markets were on the verge of going down that road again, and took the steps to try to prevent that.
The Grunwald piece has the argument (which I agree with) that if somethings not working, you should do something different... the outcome may not be perfect, but it's usually going to be better than if those things not working just continued.
Whether someone agrees with the notion or not, Bernanke certainly seems a good choice as the Time Person of the Year given his influence on the global economy... and conversely, the people in it.
