The Best Export from SC Since Stephen Colbert?

I admit that my love of early bird cafeteria food as well as watching 60 minutes every week puts me in the dorky column of my age group. 60 minutes almost always has a good interview or expose story. I trust their fact checking and was very grateful that they were reporting on the Bush Administration and Iraq when most of the media had turned their head. This little seen movie The Insider is a personal favorite for superior acting as well as commentary on how 60 minutes in a rare incident let CBS Corporate dictate refusal to air a controversial story exposing a Big Tobacco whistle blower.

Last night they aired first interview that current Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has ever given. The interview is front page news this morning as he talks about when he thinks the recession will end and signals for recovery. He also talks of mistakes the Fed has made in the bailouts (AIG in particular) and how the Fed works in general. I often say when teaching Monetary policy in class that the Fed chairman has as much power as the President and yet he is an unelected little-known position.

Bernanke is from rural Dillion, SC. SOUTH CAROLINA! WHAT??? In the interview they reveal that his own childhood home has been foreclosed on by later owners. His is truly an Outliers story as he went on to Harvard and MIT from humble beginnings.

The funniest part of this story (if there was a funny part) was Bernanke's recount of working at South of the Border in high school. You know South of the Border, the tacky tourist attraction along the SC/NC boarder that you literally see billboards every 2 miles for starting in Maine along the interstate.

It is a really good interview and gave me a much better understanding of one of the most powerful people in the US. check it out here