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TIME Magazine's Statist of the Year: Ben Bernanke
Yesterday, CCC commented on TIME Magazine’s selection of Ben Bernanke as the publication’s Person of the Year for 2009. The selection is appropriate because of the influence of Bernanke’s actions on world events. TIME has indeed made some notorious selections in the past.
So what did Bernanke do? Here is a breakdown borrowed from TIME’s 2009 Person of the Year web feature:
- conjured up trillions of new dollars and blasted them into the economy
- engineered massive public rescues of failing private companies
- ratcheted down interest rates to zero; lent to mutual funds, hedge funds, foreign banks, investment banks, manufacturers, insurers and other borrowers who had never dreamed of receiving Fed cash
- jump-started stalled credit markets in everything from car loans to corporate paper
- revolutionized housing finance with a breathtaking shopping spree for mortgage bonds
- blew up the Fed’s balance sheet to three times its previous size
- generally transformed the staid arena of central banking into a stage for desperate improvisation
Influential? No doubt.
Did he save the world? Who knows?
Ignoring the temptation to get wrapped up in TIME’s sugary ode to a statist superman, one wonders whether Bernanke has just created a bailout bubble. Imagine that popping. It might even be worse than the doomsday we are pretending to avoid.
Noting the rise of the Tea Party movement, perhaps it would be more fitting of the recognition. Then again, maybe that will be next year’s story.
Has Time lost their minds?
Just when I thought Time Magazine couldn’t become a more insane publication, it appears that they have again proven that theory wrong by honoring Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke with its “Person of the Year” honor. Reuters reported this simply heinous news recently.
What has Bernanke done to deserve this honor? In my opinion…nada, zilch, nothing. Why, you ask? Simple. The American dollar has declined under his watch, and he knew about the credit crisis before it burst, yet he did nothing about it. These reasons and more are why Rep. Ron Paul and Sen. Jim DeMint created the Audit the Fed Amendment.
Meanwhile, Time hails Bernanke for being a scholar of the Great Depression and for expanding the Federal Reserve’s powers.
Isn’t it a little odd that Bernanke received this honor considering that some U.S. Senators are considering blocking Bernanke’s re-appointment?
