People of the Year

The individuals named by international media outlets as the Person of the Year are almost exclusively key financial players who either helped cause the crisis (Ben Bernanke of the Fed, Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs) or who took privileged advantage of it (investor Warren Buffet). By this logic, the Czech Person of the Year should be Miroslav Kalousek, who is now one of the most vocal opponents of a bad state budget, or else the top bankers who avoided a meltdown by covering up their problems and by gouging their customers "because they can." But no, the real People of the Year are the small and midsize Czech business owners who run an honest shop, still believe that capitalism means making a good product for a good price, and who dipped into their own pockets before laying off any workers. The odds were stacked against these entrepreneurs from the very beginning, because of the behavior of the pseudo-People of the Year, but they made the best of a very bad situation and deserve some recognition.