Ben Bernanke: Economic Rock Star of the Year

How many, however, flock to learn the names of the top Global Thinkers of the Year? Not a whole lot, I suspect.

Whatever that number happens to be (and it does include my colleague Alex), it surely is larger than the number of people who look to see who are the top economists of the year. With good reason. Economists are generally not an exciting lot. The best jokes about economists usually have something to do with their inability to make a decision, or how they "assume a can opener" is a solution to all of their problems.

Yet, that is exactly where I looked when I saw that Foreign Policy magazine had issued its list of the top global thinkers of 2009.

And, what a surprise: The top thinker of the year is an economist! Not only that, Foreign Policy ranks him number one "for staving off a new Great Depression." Bernanke's achievements are even better than those of President Obama, whom Foreign Policy ranked number two for "reimagining America's role in the world."

Congratulations, Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Now, I just hope that Congress confirms you for a second term, so that after preventing the collapse of the U.S. economy, you can now restore it to growth. You said the economic recession that began in December 2007 is over, but with the unemployment rate above 10 percent, one in seven mortgage holders behind in their payments, and one in every four children relying on food stamps, it is time to bring growth back to the United States.

Unfortunately, this task won't be easy because your support is very thin. After listening to your confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee, it seems you don't have the clear sailing one might have presumed. Republican Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky says that your role in the AIG bailout is sufficient evidence to send you back to Princeton. Independent/socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont concurs in a way. Before you had even said a word in defense of your actions, he vowed to do would whatever he could to block your confirmation.

Despite the grilling, odds are that you'll run the Fed for the next four years. But, let's hope that you don't "assume a can opener" as you attempt to restore the economy. Getting America out of the recession is not a joking matter.

Should you need advice, you may wish to look to the other top economists of the year. Foreign Policy's list has 21 of them, including three Nobel Prize winners: Joseph Stiglitz (No. 25), Elinor Ostrom (28) and Paul Krugman (29). If you don't want to dig so far down in the list, try Nouriel Roubini, who is ranked number 4 for "accurately forecasting the global financial pandemic." You, like your predecessor Alan Greenspan, have been described as a rock star. What more could an economist want?