President Barack Obama named Gene Sperling his senior economic advisor on Friday, returning Sperling to the post he held in former President Bill Clinton's White House.

Says the New York Times, "Mr. Sperling is renowned even among Republicans as a workaholic with a knack for melding policy-making and effective political marketing of those policies, despite a reputation for disorganization."

Over at the Federal Reserve, another economic policy behemoth, Ben Bernanke, said that "It could take four to five more years for the job market to normalize fully."

His statement makes sense because though the unemployment rate dipped 0.4 percent in December, job growth was much lower than experts had expected.

Bernanke predicted that the unemployment rate would hit 8 percent in 2013.

He said now is the time for Congress and the fresh set of economic advisors in White House, such as Sperling, to figure out how to cut the government's deficits and keep down the nation's debt. 

Bernanke doesn't think cutting back spending or raising taxes are answers, which leaves serious changes to entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social security as the best options.