By AP, JPOST.COM STAFFBen Bernanke time 248 88 ap(photo credit: AP)
US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke was named Time magazine's "Person of the Year" for 2009 on Wednesday.
Speaking to Time, Bernanke said that although US banks had been stabilized, lending remained too weak to support a healthy recovery.
"We have told the banks very clearly that we want them to make loans to creditworthy borrowers, where there are borrowers who can repay the loans," Bernanke was quoted as saying.
He added that banks were cautious about taking risks, considering the "near-death experience" that they had been through in the past year.
"Even though the recession may be technically over, in a sense that the economy is growing, it's going to feel like a recession for some time, because unemployment remains very high, about 10 percent," said Bernanke, who is considered an expert on the Great Depression.
Last year's "Person of the Year" was then-US president-elect Barack Obama. The 2007 winner was Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Other previous winners have included Bono, former US president George W. Bush, and Amazon.com CEO and founder Jeff Bezos.
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