Ron Paul: Bernanke deserves 'Person of the Year' honor

[Bruno]

One of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's biggest critics said that he deserves Time magazine's "Person of the Year" award bestowed to him on Wednesday.

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), one of Bernanke's greatest critic, said that the award is fitting because Bernanke is the "most powerful man in the world."

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said that Paul had admitted off camera that Bernanke deserved the award because of his economic power. Paul replied "He is. He is the most powerful man in the world. I believe a case can be made for that... He controls the supply of money, which is the reserve currency of the world."

The Texas congressman added "He could create a trillion dollars in secret without any monitoring of the Congress...I think he's more powerful than the president."

Paul is an outspoken critic of the Federal Reserve, oftentimes saying it should be disbanded. Paul amendment's requiring an audit of the Fed's monetary activities was included in the financial regulatory overhaul bill passed by the House last week.

Bernanke was awarded the title on Wednesday morning. A number of other public officials were selected as finalists such as President Barack Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Afghanistan commanding Gen. Stanley McChrysta

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/72515-ron-paul-bernanke-deserves-person-of-the-year-honor

[Elwar]

http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Everyone%20Else/images-3/hitler-time-magazine-cover.jpg

[Bruno]

"Since 1927, TIME Magazine has chosen a man, woman, or idea that "for better or worse, has most influenced events in the preceding year."

The Man of the Year Winners
1927 Charles Augustus Lindbergh
1928 Walter P. Chrysler
1929 Owen D. Young
1930 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
1931 Pierre Laval
1932 Franklin Delano Roosevelt
1933 Hugh Samuel Johnson
1934 Franklin Delano Roosevelt
1935 Haile Selassie
1936 Mrs. Wallis Warfield Simpson
1937 Generalissimo & Mme Chiang Kai-Shek
1938 Adolf Hitler
1939 Joseph Stalin
1940 Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
1941 Franklin Delano Roosevelt
1942 Joseph Stalin
1943 George Catlett Marshall
1944 Dwight David Eisenhower
1945 Harry Truman
1946 James F. Byrnes
1947 George Catlett Marshall
1948 Harry Truman
1949 Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
1950 American Fighting-Man
1951 Mohammed Mossadegh
1952 Elizabeth II
1953 Konrad Adenauer
1954 John Foster Dulles
1955 Harlow Herbert Curtice
1956 Hungarian Freedom Fighter
1957 Nikita Krushchev
1958 Charles De Gaulle
1959 Dwight David Eisenhower
1960 U.S. Scientists
1961 John Fitzgerald Kennedy
1962 Pope John XXIII
1963 Martin Luther King Jr.
1964 Lyndon B. Johnson
1965 General William Childs Westmoreland
1966 Twenty-Five and Under
1967 Lyndon B. Johnson
1968 Astronauts Anders, Borman and Lovell
1969 The Middle Americans
1970 Willy Brandt
1971 Richard Milhous Nixon
1972 Nixon and Kissinger
1973 John J. Sirica
1974 King Faisal
1975 American Women
1976 Jimmy Carter
1977 Anwar Sadat
1978 Teng Hsiao-P'ing
1979 Ayatullah Khomeini
1980 Ronald Reagan
1981 Lech Walesa
1982 The Computer
1983 Ronald Reagan & Yuri Andropov
1984 Peter Ueberroth
1985 Deng Xiaoping
1986 Corazon Aquino
1987 Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev
1988 Endangered Earth
1989 Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev
1990 The Two George Bushes
1991 Ted Turner
1992 Bill Clinton
1993 The Peacemakers
1994 Pope John Paul II
1995 Newt Gingrich
1996 Dr. David Ho
1997 Andy Grove
1998 Bill Clinton and Kenneth Starr
1999 Jeff Bezos
2000 George W. Bush
2001 Rudolph Giuliani
2002 The Whistleblowers
2003 The American Soldier
2004 George W. Bush
2005 Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, & Bono
2006 You
2007 Vladimir Putin
2008 Barack Obama

[LibertyMage]

I took Business 101 in my first year of college. This was around 2001-2002. My professor asked me who the most powerful man in the world was. I had 12 years of public school so I figured I knew the answer to this question. I answered "George Bush". He shook his head and said "wrong...Alan Greenspan". I said to myself, "who the hell is Alan Greenspan?"

[ScoutsHonor]

"Since 1927, TIME Magazine has chosen a man, woman, or idea that "for better or worse, has most influenced events in the preceding year."

The Man of the Year Winners
1927 Charles Augustus Lindbergh
1928 Walter P. Chrysler
1929 Owen D. Young
1930 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
1931 Pierre Laval
1932 Franklin Delano Roosevelt
1933 Hugh Samuel Johnson
1934 Franklin Delano Roosevelt
1935 Haile Selassie
1936 Mrs. Wallis Warfield Simpson
1937 Generalissimo & Mme Chiang Kai-Shek
1938 Adolf Hitler
1939 Joseph Stalin
1940 Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
1941 Franklin Delano Roosevelt
1942 Joseph Stalin
1943 George Catlett Marshall
1944 Dwight David Eisenhower
1945 Harry Truman
1946 James F. Byrnes
1947 George Catlett Marshall
1948 Harry Truman
1949 Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
1950 American Fighting-Man
1951 Mohammed Mossadegh
1952 Elizabeth II
1953 Konrad Adenauer
1954 John Foster Dulles
1955 Harlow Herbert Curtice
1956 Hungarian Freedom Fighter
1957 Nikita Krushchev
1958 Charles De Gaulle
1959 Dwight David Eisenhower
1960 U.S. Scientists
1961 John Fitzgerald Kennedy
1962 Pope John XXIII
1963 Martin Luther King Jr.
1964 Lyndon B. Johnson
1965 General William Childs Westmoreland
1966 Twenty-Five and Under
1967 Lyndon B. Johnson
1968 Astronauts Anders, Borman and Lovell
1969 The Middle Americans
1970 Willy Brandt
1971 Richard Milhous Nixon
1972 Nixon and Kissinger
1973 John J. Sirica
1974 King Faisal
1975 American Women
1976 Jimmy Carter
1977 Anwar Sadat
1978 Teng Hsiao-P'ing
1979 Ayatullah Khomeini
1980 Ronald Reagan
1981 Lech Walesa
1982 The Computer
1983 Ronald Reagan & Yuri Andropov
1984 Peter Ueberroth
1985 Deng Xiaoping
1986 Corazon Aquino
1987 Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev
1988 Endangered Earth
1989 Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev
1990 The Two George Bushes
1991 Ted Turner
1992 Bill Clinton
1993 The Peacemakers
1994 Pope John Paul II
1995 Newt Gingrich
1996 Dr. David Ho
1997 Andy Grove
1998 Bill Clinton and Kenneth Starr
1999 Jeff Bezos
2000 George W. Bush
2001 Rudolph Giuliani
2002 The Whistleblowers
2003 The American Soldier
2004 George W. Bush
2005 Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, & Bono
2006 You
2007 Vladimir Putin
2008 Barack Obama

Doublethink at its finest.

[squarepusher]

seems to be basically the current US President for a good portion of the entries

[Elwar]

It's not that big of a deal...I was Person of the year in 2006. I didn't get any money out of it or anything. Just something to add to my resume.

[boethius27]

It must have been a close call between Bernanke and Mugabe.

[coyote_sprit]

"Since 1927, TIME Magazine has chosen a man, woman, or idea that "for better or worse, has most influenced events in the preceding year."


Problem with that is that they try to steer clear of that since Ayatullah Khomeini, that means they gave the award to Bernanke because they think he's doing a good job. This can clearly be seen by their very biased and bullshit article.

[Bruno]

Problem with that is that they try to steer clear of that since Ayatullah Khomeini, that means they gave the award to Bernanke because they think he's doing a good job. This can clearly be seen by their very biased and bullshit article.

I agree. Its a Bernanke lovefest on his saving us "from the brink" (of the cliff he and others almost drove us over)

[ramallamamama]

The old doctor new his comment would get picked up. Slick.

[bobbyw24]

December 17, 2009, 9:04 am
Critics Wail as Bernanke Basks in Praise

The selection of Ben S. Bernanke as Time’s “Person of the Year” was not as big of a surprise as when President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Nevertheless, Mr. Bernanke’s critics professed shock at the praise given the Federal Reserve chairman, which came ahead of the Senate Banking Committee’s scheduled vote on his reconfirmation on Thursday.

While Time usually names someone whose actions have dominated the news, whether they are positive or negative (Hitler, Stalin and Khomeini have won in the past), Mr. Bernanke’s critics both right and left on Capitol Hill are riled up about how he is being portrayed in the article as somewhat of a savior of the global financial system.

“If they are picking the person who is very significant or who is the most significant, I would say it is an appropriate choice,” Representative Ron Paul, the libertarian Republican from Texas, told DealBook regarding Time’s choice. “But my reasoning would be different from their reasoning because while he has had a great deal of influence on our economy, it has all been negative, nothing positive.”

Time notes in its article that Mr. Bernanke’s, “creative leadership helped ensure that 2009 was a period of weak recovery rather than catastrophic depression,” and that “the decisions he has made, and those he has yet to make, will shape the path of our prosperity, the direction of our politics and our relationship to the world.”

But Mr. Paul likened Mr. Bernanke to a drug dealer, saying that his actions during the crisis amounted to “a drug addict getting a fix.”

“The economy does feel a little bit better, but we haven’t addressed the subject, which is the power of the Fed to create money out of thin air that brings on the financial bubbles that always lead to a bust,” Mr. Paul said. “I think he should be known as the biggest counterfeiter the world has ever known.”

Mr. Paul, who recently wrote a book called “End the Fed,” has been a longtime critic of the agency. This year he was successful in attaching an amendment to the sweeping House financial overhaul bill that would shine more light on the operations at the Fed, especially into its reasoning for lowering and raising interest rates.

Mr. Bernanke faced a grueling Senate reconfirmation hearing earlier this month at which he was assailed by his critics — especially Senator Jim Bunning, the conservative Republican from Kentucky.

“I find it ironic that a man who has spent the last year rewarding others for failure is now being named ‘Person of the Year’ for his failures,” Mr. Bunning said about the announcement. “But if Time magazine is in the business of rewarding failure, Ben Bernanke is their man — he has certainly excelled at that.”

Mr. Bunning was the only person to vote against Mr. Bernanke’s confirmation four years ago and he said he will do it again this time around. Like Mr. Paul, he is calling for greater transparency at the Fed. He recently asked the Fed to send him transcripts of key Fed meetings along with lists of banks receiving assistance and analyses done on the crisis; the Fed denied his request on Tuesday.

Mr. Bunning vowed earlier this month at Mr. Bernanke’s reconfirmation hearing that he would do everything he could to stop Mr. Bernanke’s nomination and drag this out the reconfirmation process as long as he could.

“Many of the problems our markets are facing right now could have been avoided had Chairman Bernanke not been asleep at the switch,” Mr. Bunning said. “Chairman Bernanke is the definition of a moral hazard.”

Over on the left, Senator Bernard Sanders, the Vermont independent who calls himself a “democratic socialist,” denounced Mr. Bernanke’s policies and explained why he would vote against the Fed chairman at the Senate Banking Committee’s meeting on Thursday.

“I understand, rather ironically, that Time magazine has just named Ben Bernanke as ‘Person of the Year,’” Mr. Sanders said at a news conference on Wednesday, which was scheduled before the magazine made the announcement.

“I would also note that 10 years ago, Time magazine referred to Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin and Larry Summers as ‘The Committee to Save the World.’ But, what I find most interesting is that Time magazine acknowledges in their awarding Bernanke this honor what everybody knows to be true and this is what they say: ‘Bernanke was as clueless as Greenspan about the coming storm.’”

– Cyrus Sanati

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/critics-wail-as-bernanke-basks-in-praise/

[Captain Bryan]

It's not that big of a deal...I was Person of the year in 2006. I didn't get any money out of it or anything. Just something to add to my resume.

Haha, I might have to try adding that to my resume.;)

[Aratus]

Ron Paul does not exagerate the historic clout of the FED....