U.S. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke should enjoy being the world's most famous central banker while it lasts.
Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney added another gold star to his resume Thursday, joining the likes of Oprah, Lady Gaga, Ben Stiller and Bill Clinton on Time magazine's 100 most influential people list for 2010.
Mr. Carney was on the leaders section of the list, along with 24 others including U.S. President Barack Obama, former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
"Now that the world's richest nations are working to co-ordinate new financial rules, Carney is clamouring to stay focused on the causes of the crisis – like banks not holding enough capital and Western consumers spending too much – instead of getting distracted by populist zeal," Time's blurb on Mr. Carney said.
"`The ex-Goldman Sachs banker, who isn't afraid to crack a joke or roll his eyes, has also been warning Canadians not to take on too much personal debt," Time continued, crediting Mr. Carney with "`the sort of straight talk one rarely hears from a person whose job it is to juice the economy." Time also refers to the Governor as "good-looking," "charming" and "wicked smart."
Mr. Carney took over from David Dodge as chief of the Bank of Canada in 2008.
The central banker helped steer Canada's economy through the global downturn, in part by cutting borrowing costs to the lowest possible level, 0.25 per cent, in April of 2009. He also has played a key role in international efforts to overhaul rules governing financial institutions and has been a leading voice on the need to close the "imbalances" in the global economy that exacerbated the worldwide slump.
Last week, Mr. Carney indicated that he is preparing to raise Canadian interest rates when he dropped a commitment to stay on hold through the end of June depending on inflation.
In testimony before the Senate banking committee Thursday though, Mr. Carney kept markets guessing, saying for the second time this week that while the need for "extraordinary" policy measures is passing, nothing is "pre-ordained" about the path to tighter loans.
The governor also told panel members that the ongoing talks between the European Union, the IMF and Greece on that country's debt crisis have been "productive" and aren't likely to fail. Still, he warned that massive debt loads in many of the world's economies make up the biggest risk to the global recovery.
And in a sample of the kind of straight talk that caught Time's attention, Mr. Carney suggested that Canadian banks – still basking in the glow of having escaped the 2008-09 financial crisis with little scarring and no direct government aid – shouldn't assume the status quo is good enough.
As global regulators work on minimum standards for bank capital, Mr. Carney said there's "merit" to exploring whether Canadian banks' standards need to be improved too.
Mr. Carney spent 13 years with Goldman Sachs before entering government service, and at the time of his appointment was working as the Finance Department's chief negotiator on the international stage.
He hails from Fort Smith in the Northwest Territories, grew up in Edmonton, and holds degrees from Harvard and Oxford, where he earned a doctorate in economics.