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Janet Yellen

Janet Yellen

The speculation continues about the successor to Ben Bernanke.

From a breaking-glass-ceilings point of view, Janet Yellen, now the vice chair, would become the first female chair. Crash-tingle-ouch.

From an impressive resume point of view, she is a very impressive candidate, glass crashing notwithstanding. She is, after all, the vice chair at present. She was for more than six years President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Under Bill Clinton, she was a member of the President's Council of Economic Advisors.

Going back a bit further, she did her undergrad work at Brown University and her graduate studies at Yale, receiving a Ph.D. from the latter in 1971.

She is what is known in monetary policy as a "dove." The term arose because somebody somewhere internalized the metaphor of a "war" on inflation. So central bankers willing to risk recession or worse to fight inflation are "hawks" and those willing to make peace with inflation in order to save jobs are "doves."

Personally, I believe that Bernanke has been far too dovish, and that although we haven't seen the consequences of that yet at the check-out counter of our grocery stores: that will come. The appointment of the woman who has covered Bernanke's flank from the dovish side doesn't thrill me at all.

Still, neither does the prospect of the chairmanship of the one person who, it seems, could yet block her and become the next chair in her stead: Lawrence Summers.  Of him, more on another day.


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