Who Is Janet Yellen?

Janet Louise Yellen was born August 13, 1946.  She is the daughter of Anna (née Blumenthal) and Julius Yellen, a doctor.

She graduated summa cum laude from Brown University with a degree in economics in 1967, and received her Ph.D. in economics from Yale University in 1971.  She co-authored The Fabulous Decade: Macroeconomic Lessons from the 1990s (with Alan Blinder), published by The Century Foundation Press, New York, 2001.

Ms. Yellen is an American economist and professor who is the Vice Chairwoman of the Board ofGovernors of the Federal Reserve System.

Previously, she was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill Clinton, and Professor Emerita at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

"The nomination would conclude a long and unusually public debate about Mr. Obama's choice which started last June when he said that Ben Bernanke wouldn't be staying in the post after his term ends in January.

"Mr. Obama gave serious consideration to his former economic adviser, Lawrence Summers, who pulled out in September after facing resistance from Democrats in the Senate."

The Times added:

"If anything, Ms. Yellen has wanted the Fed to take even more aggressive measures to lift economic growth, believing the risks of inflation are modest. But her views and Mr. Bernanke's appear close enough that markets have considered her potential ascension as a sign of continuity at the Fed."

Bloomberg reports:

“Yellen has made the case for maintaining highly-accommodative monetary policy for the foreseeable future. In 2012 speeches, she said the Fed could keep interest rates at historic, near-zero levels into 2015."

President Obama will nominate Yellen to replace Ben Bernanke as chairwoman of the Federal Reserve on October 9, 2013.  If confirmed, Yellen, aged 67, will be the first woman to head the American central bank.