Biden To Choose Ex-Fed Chair Yellen as First Woman Treasury Secretary, Allies Say
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is expected to tap former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen as U.S. Treasury Secretary, putting a woman in the job for the first time, according to two Democratic allies. With Yellen, 74…
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is expected to tap former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen as U.S. Treasury Secretary, putting a woman in the job for the first time, according to two Democratic allies.
With Yellen, 74, Biden has chosen an experienced policymaker respected by Congress, international finance officials, progressives and business interests, and one that has called for opening fiscal spending taps to boost economic recovery.
A spokesman for Biden’s transition team declined to comment. Yellen, reached by phone, also declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal earlier on Monday reported that Biden planned to nominate Yellen as his Treasury chief.
Jen Psaki, a Biden transition adviser, tweeted that the president-elect “looks forward to announcing some members of his economic team early next week who will work with him to build the economy back better.”
Earlier on Monday, Biden tapped veteran diplomat Antony Blinken as his new Secretary of State and named other members of his national security team.
U.S. President Donald Trump continues to dispute without evidence Biden’s victory over him in the Nov. 3 election.
STRONG ADVOCATE OF FISCAL HELP
Yellen has called for increased government spending to boost the U.S. economy out of a deep recession brought on by the coronavirus and has frequently cited growing economic inequality in the United States as a threat to America’s values and its future.
At Treasury, she would have a major role in influencing U.S. fiscal and tax policy, tools she did not have at the Fed, which she chaired from 2014 to 2018. She was the Fed’s vice chair from 2010 to 2014.
Yellen was chosen over two other seasoned economic policymakers, including current Fed Board of Governors member Lael Brainard, 58, who served as the Treasury’s undersecretary for international affairs early in the Obama administration. Also under consideration was former Fed governor Roger Ferguson, 69, who recently announced his retirement as chairman of pension fund TIAA.