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Joe Biden, the president-elect of the United States, is ready to elect Janet Yellen as his Secretary of the Treasury and the top cabinet official in charge of the American economy, as he faces a painstaking recovery from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. .
The likely election of Ms Yellen, 74, will cement her status as one of the top American legislators of her generation, given her previous role as chair of the Federal Reserve, chair of the San Francisco Federal Reserve and chair of the council. of the White House. Bill Clinton’s economic advisers.
Yellen recently teased Lael Brainard, a Fed governor, as Biden’s top pick to head the Treasury department with an announcement expected in the coming days, according to people familiar with the matter.
She declined to comment through a Brookings Institution spokesperson.
Other contenders for the position included Sarah Bloom Raskin, former Under Secretary of the Treasury; Roger Ferguson, Executive Director of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association; and Raphael Bostic, president of the Atlanta Fed. Biden’s transition team declined to comment.
Assuming it is confirmed by the Senate, Ms. Yellen will be the first woman to serve as Secretary of the Treasury in the institution’s 231-year history. She will replace Steven Mnuchin, Donald Trump’s Secretary of the Treasury, with the difficult mission of shaking up America’s recovery with billions of dollars of new stimulus requested by Biden, while keeping financial markets stable.
Those efforts are likely to involve painstaking negotiations with the Capitol, given Republican resistance to large-scale spending increases, and a close relationship with Jay Powell, the Fed chairman, particularly since Mnuchin recently moved to liquidate various facilities. of emergency loans in the center. bank that have been crucial to its response to the crisis.
Biden’s decision to elect Ms Yellen to the Treasury seat will bring a steady hand and a well-known figure at the helm of the American economy, but his nomination also reflects his desire to finely balance the demands of the moderate and progressive wings of the democrats. match.
As maneuvers for the Treasury’s higher position intensified in recent weeks, Yellen was seen to be far enough to the left of Brainard and Ferguson to satisfy liberals, but not as progressive as Raskin.
Ms. Yellen is a native of New York City, received her BA in economics from Brown University and later earned a Ph.D. from Yale University, where she was taught by Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz.
In addition to her time in the White House, she held various senior positions at the Fed before being nominated to chair the U.S. central bank by then-President Barack Obama in late 2013, and took office in early 2013. 2014.
Ms Yellen led the Fed through a tightening cycle as the central bank attempted to normalize its monetary policy in the later stages of recovery from the financial crisis.
It was considered one of the more dovish monetary authorities, but the US central bank later deemed the interest rate hikes under its supervision to be overly aggressive, finding that unemployment could fall to much lower levels. before triggering inflation.
Swamp notes
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