Yellen Is an Excellent Choice for Treasury Secretary
A Treasury that believes in sound economics and broad agreement where possible would be a welcome change.
President-elect Joe Biden reportedly plans to nominate former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen as the next Treasury secretary. She’d be an impeccable choice. Her breadth of experience in economic policy making, her pragmatic and progressive worldview, and her calm consensus-seeking temperament make Yellen the ideal partner for the president that Biden wants to be, and needs to be.
Yellen would be the first woman Treasury secretary, just as she was the first to lead the Federal Reserve — a job she did with distinction. Many were disappointed when President Donald Trump chose not to appoint her to another term in 2018. She has consistently recognized the limits to what monetary policy can achieve once interest rates have been cut, by necessity, to zero, and has called for fiscal policy to play a stronger role in supporting demand under those conditions. The Treasury secretary is the officer the country needs to make that case, come forward with specifics, and build the necessary support in Congress.