Besieged

Sometimes it seems like it's the world vs. Ben. Particularly since the start of the economic crisis, Bernanke has received sharp criticism from all sides. When President Obama nominated him to a second term as Fed chairman in 2009, senators on both sides of the aisle balked. The Senate ultimately reconfirmed Bernanke by a vote of 70 to 30, the tightest Fed chairman confirmation vote ever. More recently, 2012 Republican presidential candidates have taken aim: Newt Gingrich says he would "fire [Bernanke] tomorrow," Mitt Romney would be "looking for someone new," and Rick Perry said from the campaign trail in August: "If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I don't know what you all would do to him in Iowa, but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas." In addition, Republican congressional leaders sent a letter to Bernanke in advance of this week's Open Market Committee meeting, advising the Fed to "resist further extraordinary intervention in the U.S. economy."