AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Chairman, Federal Reserve Board
Location Washington, DC
Age 52
College A.B. 1975

The 24-hour news cycle causes whiplash far beyond the world of dissolute starlets and steroid-addled athletes—it catches up with the man in charge of the world’s largest economy, too. Since succeeding Alan Greenspan at the Fed in February, Bernanke has seen his star fall and rise like a yo-yo. Dismissed at first as a tone-deaf bungler with a penchant for off-the-cuff remarks that sent the markets reeling, he saw his reputation rebound as the economy stabilized. The Fed’s current campaign of raising interest rates to keep inflation under control predates Bernanke’s appointment, but he still gets the credit when things go well. And he’ll feel the sting should any number of elements, including the Chinese economy and the problematic housing market, tip the scales toward recession. The sensation of suffering for something he has no control over shouldn’t be completely foreign, though—in his days as a student at Harvard and MIT, Bernanke, who grew up in South Carolina, became a Red Sox fan.

However… In a possible harbinger of unrest, one member (Richmond Fed president Jeffrey M. Lacker) dissented when the Fed’s policy committee voted in August to leave interest rates unchanged.

Google hits 3.2 million for “Ben Bernanke”; 15,800 for “Greenspan’s successor”