by Daniel Costello

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was named "Person of the Year" by Time magazine today for leading the "most-powerful, least-understood government force shaping our lives."

I realize I'm probably inviting all kinds of fun potshots about my intelligence and emotional stability, but I think it's a great call.

Bernanke is a leading architect of an imperfect but largely successful effort that helped steer the world's largest economy from collapse. What's more, many of his Congressional opponents and others are taking him on in order to fight old fights (Congress has long wanted more authority over the Fed, for one) rather than for his job performance.

It appears the runner Usain Bolt was a runner up. Now that I could have taken issue with.