It looks like Time just hinted at who its man, er woman, of 2014 will be with its just released cover showcasing Janet Yellen “The Sixteen Trillion Dollar Woman” which wraps her first interview since being confirmed as Fed chair.
Highlights from the interview:
- Yellen on the American economy: “I think we’ll see stronger growth this year. Most of my colleagues on the Fed’s policy-making committee and I are hopeful that the first digit [of GDP growth] could be 3 rather than 2…. The recovery has been frustratingly slow, but we’re making progress in getting people back to work, and I anticipate that inflation will move back toward our longer-run goal of 2 percent.” On the housing market, which had a brief lull this fall: “I expect it to pick back up and I do expect a further recovery.”
- On the Fed’s QE program: “You know, a lot of people say this [asset buying] is just helping rich people. But it’s not true. Our policy is aimed at holding down long-term interest rates, which supports the recovery by encouraging spending. And part of the [economic stimulus] comes through higher house and stock prices, which causes people with homes and stocks to spend more, which causes jobs to be created throughout the economy and income to go up throughout the economy.”
- On banking reform: “I felt that the Fed had always been the agency that picked up the pieces when there was a financial crisis, and it was invented to do exactly that. But we never had as active a program to attempt to assess threats to financial stability as was called for…. I think Dodd-Frank is a good road map and lays out most of the steps that are necessary. But we may also need to take some further steps that have not been taken yet.”
- On her overall philosophy: “[The job] isn’t just about fighting inflation or monitoring the financial system. It’s about trying to help ordinary households get back on their feet and about creating a labor market where people can feel secure and work and get ahead.”
- On her career epiphany at Brown University: “I was interested in math, and I think very logically, and I remember sitting in that class and learning about how there were policy decisions that could have been taken during the Great Depression to alleviate all that human suffering – that was a real ‘ah-ha’ moment for me. I realized that public policy can, and should, address these problems.”
- TIME’s Rana Foroohar writes: “At the end of the day, Janet Yellen, the commander in chief of the everyday economy, will judge herself not by the views of Wall Street but by the health of Main Street…. A rising tide can lift all boats. That’s a phrase that’s been associated with conservatives in recent years, but it’s worth remembering that Kennedy said it first—and Yellen still believes it.”
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via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/_SY-yJD5fGs/story01.htm Tyler Durden