Janet Yellin, former chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve and Joe Biden’s pick for treasury secretary, will in essence put the Federal Reserve in full control of the United States money machine.
Yet, this is not mentioned by the media, which instead highlights that Ms. Yellen will be the first woman to occupy the position as Treasury head… ignoring the fact that money junkies are not sexists, considering that the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank are led by women.
Yellin will be tasked to re-engage with economic partners who were repelled by the Trump administration’s “America First” policy and liberal use of tariffs. She also will have a strong voice in trade policy, The New York Times reported, including relations with China and sanctions on Iran and North Korea.
She is known to support free trade as a backer of the World Trade Organization and has criticized China’s manipulative trade practices.
In public statements, Yellin has lauded open trade and globalization for raising living standards for millions in developing nations and bringing more countries to some level of prosperity.
In January, when she was president of the American Economic Association, she organized the group’s annual conference to feature presentations on the benefits of free trade and immigration for national economies.
She has acknowledged the roles those policies have played in creating economic inequities and sparking populism, under which the U.S. pulled back from global leadership and engagement when Donald Trump came to the presidency.
As treasury secretary, Yellin also will steer tax policy, including Biden’s vow to seek higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans. She will fine-tune regulations governing the 2017 tax cut enacted by Trump and Republican members of Congress.
Although Yellin’s support for low interest rates is well-known, she also has called the current level of national debt “unsustainable,” reflecting growing concern among Republicans in Congress about rising federal spending.
“If I had a magic wand, I would raise taxes and cut retirement spending,” she told the Charles Schwab Impact conference in 2018.
The debt problem “will not be solved without some additional revenues,” she said, “but I also find it hard to believe that it won’t be solved without some changes to” Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security spending.
Yellin is a member of the board of directors of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a private, nonprofit group that calls for restrained federal spending.
