On October 9th, President Obama nominated Janet L. Yellen to be the chairwoman of the Federal Reserve and his independent co-steward of the economy. In his nomination, Obama described her as one of the nation’s foremost economists and policy makers.
After it was confirmed that Lawrence Summers was not likely to be appointed to succeed Ben Bernanke, Yellen became the widely recognized candidate. She is supported by U.S. Senate Democrats and more than 350 economists. Yellen became a member of the Fed’s board of governors in 1994, and served as chair of Council of Economic Advisors from 1997 to 1999 for President Bill Clinton. In 2010, Yellen was appointed to the position of vice-chair of the Fed’s board of governors, a position she has held since.
If Yellen’s historical nomination is passed, she will become the first woman, and first actual Democrat in charge of money policy for the United States. The success of her nomination comes from the effort of the progressive senators and outside groups who pressed for Ms. Yellen, hoping she takes measures to regulate big banks and stress the job-creation aspect of the Fed’s dual mandate to fight unemployment and inflation.
In response to the nomination, Yellen said: “While I think we all agree, Mr. President, that more needs to be done to strengthen the recovery, particularly for those hardest hit by the Great Recession, we have made progress. The economy is stronger and the financial system sounder.” Her comments are being parsed as clues for predicting what strategy she might implement if she were in charge of the Fed.