Anyone working as chairman of the Fed might have done the similar job as Ben Bernanke did during the last several years. His work was alway lacklustre and following events, not leading them.

Apart from his contribution to US economy as Fed Chairman in combating the subprime crisis, is "Moral Hazard of Central Banking" wherein he deliberatly intervened the sell of Bear Stearns and remain a watchdog when it came to save "Lehman". Which triggered the economic crisis globally. It shows that how purposefully he manipulated the role of central govt. in dealing with crisis. I guess Fuld must be happy to read. But I appreciate his work in the area of monetary economics particularly on monetary transmission issue. I still refer his paper titled " Measuring monetary policy" coauthored with Mihov. Anayway he will be remembered for his super expansionary policies in dealing with one of the world's worst economic crisis strategically. He has certainly left a great lesson for Marvyn King and Trichet. Both are still struggling to keep the economy moving.

Bernanke and Greenspan aren't economists, they are or were financial factotums with a PR department.

Keynes, Hayek, Stiglitz etc are *economists*.

If all he can come up with is printing more money, I wonder about the title "Economist". Would't it be more apropriate calling such a fellow "Counterfeiter"? Who ever has really solved economic problems in that way? What about saving? Why not close half the 900 military bases around the world? Why not improving basic education?
There are plenty more issues where one can save billions.
But all they can come up with is printing more money.........and ruining all savers in the process.

If all he can come up with is printing more money, I wonder about the title "Economist". Would't it be more apropriate calling such a fellow "Counterfeiter"? Who ever has really solved economic problems in that way? What about saving? Why not close half the 900 military bases around the world? Why not improving basic education?
There are plenty more issues where one can save billions.
But all they can come up with is printing more money.........and ruining all savers in the process.

I think that most economists if they were chairmans of the FED would do pretty much the same as Ben Bernanke. There was an economic downturn and there was a cliche of reaction to it - lowering the interest rates. Ben Bernanke haven't predicted the financial meltdown. I don't think that monetary easening was as influential as fiscal stimulus in the USA. Economists like Joseph Stiglitz who were and are talking a lot are very influential. I think that we cannot tell whether Ben Bernanke is the most influential, we will be able of telling this after a few years because we are gonna find out what impact will the monetary easening have made. There is a debate among prominent economists like Nassim Taleb that the present monetary policy is not right and it could be just a trigger to another financial crises in the future. So the impact is still unknown and it would be very difficult to quantitatively assess it.