Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the US Federal Reserve board, has been named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year.

The magazine said the recession itself was the story of the year and without Mr Bernanke at the helm it would have been a lot worse.

Mr Bernanke, who is 56, is a former Princeton University professor and an expert on the Great Depression.

US President Barack Obama and the Apple chief executive Steve Jobs were also in the running for the award.

President Obama was last year’s winner.

“We’ve rarely had such a perfect revision of the cliche that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” said Richard Stengel, Time Magazine’s managing editor.

“Bernanke didn’t just learn from history; he wrote it himself and was damned if he was going to repeat it.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8416482.stm

THE US Senate banking committee confirmed Ben Bernanke for a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve board by a 16-7 vote today.

The full Senate is expected to take up Bernanke’s nomination shortly after politicians return from the holiday recess on January 19.

One Democratic member of the panel, Senator Jeff Merkley, a Democrat, joined six Republicans including the senior GOP member of the panel in opposing Mr Bernanke’s confirmation.

“I strongly disapprove of some of the past deeds of the Federal Reserve while Ben Bernanke was a member and its chairman, and I lack confidence in what little planning for the future he has articulated,” Richard Shelby, the top Republican on the committee, said.

The politician has expressed severe doubts about the Fed’s various market interventions in a bid to mitigate the impact of the financial crisis.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/industry-sectors/us-senate-banking-committee-endorses-ben-bernanke-for-a-second-term/story-e6frg96f-1225811590844

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this must be the aprils fools day in december..no?

stalin won this 3 times..nixon twice..dubya once..what a parade of assholes!

and gets another term for all his good work!

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