Actually, The Economist
describes him as a cartographer, but I think geographer is more correct.
SOUNDING more like a cartographer than a central banker, Ben Bernanke this week showed off the Federal Reserves latest gizmo for tracking Americas property bust: maps that colour-code price declines, foreclosures and other gauges of housing distress for every county. His goal was to show that falling prices meant more foreclosures, and to urge lenders to write down the principal on troubled loans where the house is worth less than the value of the mortgage. His mapswhere hotter colours imply more troublealso make a starker point. The pain of Americas housing bust varies enormously by region. Hardest hit have been the bubble statesCalifornia, Nevada and Florida, and parts of the industrial Midwest. The biggest uncertainty hanging over the economy is how red will things get.