Janet Yellen

Janet Louise Yellen (born August 13, 1946) is an American economist who served as the United States Secretary of the Treasury from 2021 to 2025. She was the Chair of the US central bank, the Federal Reserve System, from 2014 to 2018. She previously served as Vice Chair from 2010 to 2014.

Economics is a subject that really relates to core aspects of human well-being, and there’s a methodology for thinking about these things. This was a very appealing combination to me.

Quotes

• It is imperative that Congress swiftly addresses the debt limit
• [Failing to act could spark an economic catastrophe] Nearly 50 million seniors could stop receiving Social Security checks for a time. Troops could go unpaid. Millions of families who rely on the monthly child tax credit could see delays.
• In a matter of days, millions of Americans could be strapped for cash.”
  • remarks to the Senate Banking Committee according to "Here’s what the debt limit standoff means for you (September 28, 2021)

• So, it is not reporting of individual transactions or anything of the like. And it would be a simple thing for banks and other payment providers to provide along with the other information they’re already providing.
  • "Yellen defends IRS rule requiring banks to report all transactions over $600" (October 5, 2021)

• [Democrats are considering a new tax] on liquid assets held by extremely wealthy individuals
  • "Secretary Yellen: How new billionaire tax would work"+short video (October 24, 2021)

• The Fed has a dual mandate and it is maximum employment and price stability. I think that’s the way it’s phrased in the law
  • Yellen says the administration is fighting inflation, admits she was wrong that it was 'transitory' (PUBLISHED WED, JUN 1 20228:01 AM EDT UPDATED WED, JUN 1 20229:32 AM EDT)

The Hand on the Lever (2014)

"The Hand on the Lever" in The New Yorker (July 21, 2014) by Nicholas Lemann

• I felt I wanted to talk about the Fed’s mission, and I wanted to do so in understandable terms, and to emphasize that unemployment is part of our mission. The recession has taken a particularly heavy toll on those who have less education and income—middle-income and low-income families—and the Fed’s concern with the job market is a theme I’ve wanted to get across. Why are we doing all these things that are in the newspapers all the time? I was trying to explain that we’re doing this to help American families who are struggling in the aftermath of the Great Recession.

• Economics is a subject that really relates to core aspects of human well-being, and there’s a methodology for thinking about these things. This was a very appealing combination to me. Market systems are capable of massive breakdowns that can result in long, devastating periods of high unemployment. And I felt that economists had really learned something about how to address that.

• [New classical economics] was the starting point for a rightward shift in economics that went against the idea that monetary policy can improve macroeconomic outcomes.

• O.K., so what does standard new classical economics say? You should cut the wages of everybody who works for you. Because there are all the people standing outside the factory gates, and they have the same skill set as the people who work for you. You should at least be willing, according to this view, if not to hire them, to say to your own workers, ‘If you don’t take a pay cut, I’m going to replace you with them.’ But one goes around, actually talks to firms, and you’ll find that no firm would do that.
• “As we proceed, we must remember that its trajectory is not predestined [1]

About

• An outstanding choice. Tough, smart and principled
  • Elizabeth Warren in TRANSITION 2020 progressives praise Yellen but could soon clash with Biden’s Treasury pick published November 27, 2020

• Well, what happened, apparently, was that while the Dodd-Frank Act was being rewritten by the Congress, Janet Yellen changed the wording around and she said, “Well, how do we define a general liquidity crisis?” Well, it doesn't mean what you and I mean by a liquidity crisis, meaning the whole economy is illiquid. She said, “If five banks need to borrow, then it's a general liquidity crisis.” Well, the problem, as she points out, is it's the same three big banks, again and again, and again and again. And these are not short-term loans. She points out that they were 14-day loans; there were longer loans. And they were rolled over, not overnight loans, not day-to-day loans, not even week-to-week loans. But month after month, the Fed was pumping money into JP Morgan and Citibank and Goldman. But then she points out that, or at least she told me, that these really weren't Citibank and Morgan Chase; it was to their trading affiliates. Now this is exactly what Dodd-Frank was supposed to prevent.... So I think the reason that the newspapers are going quiet on this is the Fed broke the law. And it wants to continue breaking the law.
  • Michael Hudson, quoted by Ben Norton, in Economist Michael Hudson explains inflation crisis and Fed's secretive $4.5 trillion bank bailout, Geopolitical Economy Report Subtitle: Economist Michael Hudson discusses the global inflation crisis and how the US Federal Reserve quietly (and apparently illegally) bailed out big banks in 2019 with $4.5 trillion of emergency repo loans (8 Jan 2022)

• Yellen has been involved in high-level monetary policy since the Clinton administration. She served as chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve, Chair of the Federal Reserve, and the United States Secretary of Treasury. Yellen has participated in some of the largest inflation jumps and dollars printed in the past 25 years, with a 7% increase in 2021 and 6.5% in 2022, YoY. Roughly 6-11% of US dollars are physical, with 90% being digital.
  • R. Houck, Monetary Policy of the United States, May 2025

External links

• https://twitter.com/SecYellen