Jilted Janet out
Yellen to refuse lower role at the Fed
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Monday she will leave the Fed altogether after her term as its leader ends in February — giving President Trump yet another opportunity to reshape the central bank.
The Brooklyn-born economist, who’s led the Fed since 2014, said that she’s resigning once her successor, Fed governor Jerome Powell, is sworn in, according to a statement.
Yellen was entitled to stay on in a less powerful, but still influential, position as a Fed governor until 2024.
“As I prepare to leave the board, I am gratified that the financial system is much stronger than a decade ago, better able to withstand future bouts of instability and continue supporting the economic aspirations of American families and businesses,” Yellen said in her resignation letter.
President Trump announced earlier this month that he wouldn’t be nominating Yellen for a second term, the first time that a Fed chair would only get one term in almost 50 years — since Bill Miller in the late Seventies.
Yellen’s departure will give Trump the ability to name at least five out of the seven governors who preside over the Federal Re- serve system, which could essentially remake the central bank in his image.
Trump earlier this month appointed Fed governor Powell to fill Yellen’s seat.
Meanwhile, an unusual slew of prolonged vacancies — some dating back to the Obama administration — has left the Fed with four empty seats.
This year alone, two other important figures in the central bank system — Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo and New York Fed Governor William Dudley — announced they would be stepping down from their roles.
That’s on top of three other openings that were previously open.
Yellen, 71, succeeded Ben Bernanke as the Fed chair, and in late 2015 steered the financial system through the first interest rate hikes since the financial crisis.