Time Person of the Year , Ben Bernanke Federal Reserve Chairman

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke beat out several contenders, including Steve Jobs, Stanley McChrystal and Nancy Pelosi, for the 2009 Person of the Year designation.

Remember September 2008? The month when the entire U.S. financial system almost collapsed? Ever since that pivotal moment, one person has been in the crosshairs, making decision after decision that has impacted nearly every American alive today.

That person is Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Because of his monumental influence on the world’s most important economy, Bernanke has been named TIME magazine’s 2009 Person of the Year.

TIME Managing Editor Richard Stengel called the Federal Reserve “the most powerful, least understood government force shaping our lives” as he revealed his magazine’s choice live on TODAY Wednesday morning.

• TIME’s No. 2 runner-up after Bernanke was Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Stengel told TODAY’s Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira that McChrystal came “very close” to usurping Bernanke’s Person of the Year cover: “He really was the prime mover behind the change in Afghanistan strategy.”

• No. 3: The Chinese worker — an acknowledgement of an increasingly influential group of people in one of the world’s most powerful economies.

• No. 4: Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Speaker of the House.

• No. 5: Usain Bolt, Jamaican sprinter and Olympic gold medalist.
  

The magazine has picked a Person of the Year each year since 1927. Here is a look back at just some of them:

— 1930: Mohandas Gandhi

— 1938: Adolf Hitler

— 1939: Joseph Stalin

— 1940: Winston Churchill

— 1941: Franklin D. Roosevelt

— 1952: Queen Elizabeth II

— 1961: John F. Kennedy

— 1963: Martin Luther King Jr.

— 1966: 25-and-under generation

— 1971: Richard M. Nixon

— 1975: American women

— 1976: Jimmy Carter

— 1979: Ayatollah Khomeini

— 1980: Ronald Reagan

— 1982: The computer

— 1989: Mikhail Gorbachev

— 1992: Bill Clinton

— 1994: Pope John Paul II

— 2000: George W. Bush

— 2001: Rudolph Giuliani

— 2006: You

— 2007: Vladimir Putin

— 2008: Barack Obama

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