| Janet Louise Yellen | |
|---|---|
| Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve System | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office October 4, 2010 |
|
| Preceded by | Donald Kohn |
| President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco | |
| In office June 14, 2004 – October 4, 2010 |
|
| Preceded by | Robert T. Parry |
| Succeeded by | John C. Williams |
| 18th Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors | |
| In office February 13, 1997 – 1999 |
|
| President | Bill Clinton |
| Preceded by | Joseph Stiglitz |
| Succeeded by | Martin N. Baily |
| Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System | |
| In office August 12, 1994 – February 17, 1997 |
|
| Nominated by | Bill Clinton |
| Personal details | |
| Born | August 13, 1946 Brooklyn, New York |
| Spouse(s) | George Akerlof |
| Alma mater | Yale University (Ph.D.) Brown University (A.B.) |
Janet Louise Yellen (born August 13, 1946) is an American economist and professor, who is currently the Vice Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Previously, she was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill Clinton, and Professor Emerita at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business.
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Yellen was born in Brooklyn, New York, and graduated from Fort Hamilton High School in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn.[1] She graduated magna cum laude from Brown University with a degree in economics in 1967, and received her Ph.D. in economics from Yale University in 1971.
Beginning in 1980, Yellen has been conducting research at the Haas School and teaching macroeconomics to full-time and part-time MBA students. She is now a Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business, where she was the Eugene E. and Catherine M. Trefethen Professor of Business and Professor of Economics. Twice she has been awarded the Haas School's outstanding teaching award.
Yellen served as chair of President Bill Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers from February 13, 1997[2] to 1999, and was appointed as a member of the Federal Reserve System's Board of Governors from 1994 to 1997. She has taught at Harvard University and at the London School of Economics. Yellen serves as president of the Western Economic Association International and is a former vice president of the American Economic Association. She is a fellow of the Yale Corporation.
On June 14, 2004, Yellen became the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She was a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) in 2009.
Yellen is considered by many on Wall Street to be an "inflation dove" (as concerned with unemployment as inflation) and as such to be less likely to advocate Federal Reserve interest rate hikes, as compared, for example, to William Poole (former St. Louis Fed president) an "inflation hawk" (see definitions under Inflation).[3]
In July 2009, Yellen was mentioned as a potential successor to Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve System, before he was renominated by Barack Obama.[4]
According to Fed Salary figures released for 2009, Yellen earned $410,000 that year as San Francisco Fed President, more than twice Chairman Ben Bernanke ($199,700) whose pay is limited by law.[5]
On April 28, 2010, President Obama nominated Yellen to succeed Donald Kohn as vice-chairman of the Federal Reserve System.[5] In July, "[t]he Senate Banking Committee voted 17 to 6 to confirm her, though the top Republican on the panel, Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, voted no, saying he believed Ms. Yellen had an 'inflationary bias.'" At the same time, on the heels of concerned testimony by Fed chair Bernanke, FOMC voting member James B. Bullard of the St; Louis Fed made a statement that the U.S. economy was "at risk of becoming 'enmeshed in a Japanese-style deflationary outcome within the next several years.'" Bullard's statement was interpreted as a possible shift within the FOMC balance between inflation hawks and doves. Yellen's pending confirmation, along with those of Peter A. Diamond and Sarah Bloom Raskin to fill vacancies, was seen as possibly furthering such a shift in the FOMC. All three nominations were seen as "on track to be confirmed by the Senate."[6]
On October 4, 2010, Yellen was sworn in for a 4-year term ending October 4, 2014. Dr. Yellen simultaneously began a 14-year term as a member of the Federal Reserve Board that will expire January 31, 2024.
On October 11, 2010, in her first public speech as Vice Chair, Yellen stepped away from dovish rhetoric with respect to low interest rates. She stated, "It is conceivable that accommodative monetary policy could provide tinder for a buildup of leverage and excessive risk-taking in the financial system."[7]
Yellen is Jewish,[8] and is married to George Akerlof, a Nobel prize-winning economist and professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. Her son, Robert Akerlof [9] is currently a postdoctoral associate in Applied Economics at the MIT Sloan School of Management.[10]
Yellen received the Wilbur Cross Medal from Yale in 1997, an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Brown in 1998, and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Bard College in 2000. In October 2010, she received the prestigious Adam Smith Award from the National Association for Business Economics (NABE).[11]
| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Joseph E. Stiglitz |
Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers February 13, 1997–1999 |
Succeeded by Martin Neil Baily |
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