TIME Magazine's 2009 Person of the Year?
December 29, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
I’m sure Ben Bernanke is a nice man and all, but why is he being touted as the “Person of the Year”?
Back in the olden days, back before I became at least somewhat politically astute and hip to the ways of the world, I used to read TIME Magazine. Yes, I confess it, and I have repented of that folly. In fact, I stopped reading TIME years ago because its editors and writers seemed to be pathologically incapable of presenting commentary on the news in a balanced and objectively honest way. Not only are the stories and editorials imbued with liberal cant, the selection of stories is perpetually reflective of a distorted leftist weltanschauung that perceives everything only in shades of gray, pink, and rainbow.
Which brings me to this blog piece from the PIME Missionaries (a congregation of Catholic priests who minister primarily in India and Asia), who comments, “As the world waits for hyperinflation and a world government, Bernanke becomes ‘Person of the Year.'”
The piece includes a number of good observations about why Ben Bernanke is an odd choice for this honor, including this one: “What better achievement to put in the resume of an otherwise average economics professor from Princeton, without much theoretical work or publications to his name.”
I know why they chose him: it's the beard!
This is almost as funny as the Nobel peace prize
Economics is not my concentration so I am not an authority in the subject.. But from a layman's view, I don't see the US, nay the world, sliding into a depression. Was this because of Bernanke, I don't know. What are the alternatives? And with Sheila, I concur that the award is not an accolade for good work but a measure of impact.
The "man of the year" is given to the person who Time believes has had the biggest impact, good or ill. Bernanke certainly has impacted the U.S. with his policies. Of course, we know that his policies are negative. The economic meltdown was so huge that any tinkering done in the aftermath was sure to come under intense scrutiny. That Bernanke was in the thick of it is evident in Time's choice. When the U.S. goes belly up and is taken over by China, I wonder if the Chinese government will become "men of the year". How's your Mandarin?
If they put butler as person of the year then burn the magazine and send it back to hell.
And what's your evidence, sir, of Mr. Bernanke's niceness? I have evidence he is a schneed, and a glur.
Yet another good reason I dont read Time Magazine!
It only makes sense in regards that it is not Time's best person of the year. After all they put Hitler as person of the year. With the bad economy and the decisions they have made which have worsened it it certainly is no honor for Bernaanke.
Though I wouldn't line a birdcage with their mag considering how horrible their religious and political coverage is.
"What better achievement to put in the resume of an otherwise average economics professor from Princeton, without much theoretical work or publications to his name."
If this is the case, I do not see why I was not considered for this honor, as my credentials are much less impressive than "an … average economics professor from Princeton."