Janet Yellen before the Senate Banking Committee

If you happen to follow the Federal Reserve, then you are aware that Ben Bernanke’s tenure at chair of the Fed will be up soon. President Obama has nominated Janet Yellen to the post, making her the first woman nominee. There doesn’t appear to be too much push back from the Senate, and in all likelihood she will be confirmed as the first woman chair of the Fed. You can read a good description of the hearing, including Yellen’s articulation to her intention to continue QE3 into the future, here.

It’s worth noting that, despite the obscurity of the position, the chair of the Federal Reserve is probably the most influential person in the U.S. economy, in many ways much more influential than the President or Congress. In that regard, I think you could classify this breaking of a glass ceiling on par with Nancy Pelosi becoming the first woman Speaker of the House.

What do you, dear readers, think of Yellen as a pick? A victory for modern feminism? Smart/ disastrous continuation of the Bernanke policies? Sound off in the comments.

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