AGE: 54
OCCUPATION: Federal Reserve Chairman
NUMBER OF TIME COVERS: 0
PREVIOUS APPEARANCES ON THE TIME 100: 2
PRO: Don't call it a bailout! But it is something of a comeback: Bernanke, emerging from Greenspan's shadow to clean up Greenspan's mess, has been generally praised for engineering the takeover of Bear Stearns by JP Morgan Chase — a move that some say staved off financial collapse.
CON: This isn't over. And with every desperate, band-aid rate cut at the Fed, the specter of inflation becomes a bit more corporeal.