JANET’S CASH BASH
Ex-Fed head paid well to hobnob with moguls
Janet Yellen is finally cashing in.
The former Federal Reserve chair spent the past week in New York getting wined and dined — and paid handsomely — by Wall Street bigwigs, just weeks after stepping down from the helm of the world’s most powerful central bank, sources told the Post.
On Wednesday evening at The Grill — the swanky restaurant that now occupies the Four Seasons space in the Seagram Building off Park Avenue — Yellen was treated to a “small, intimate dinner” hosted by investment bank BTIG, according to a source briefed on the get-together.
Ten guests “representing more than $100 billion in assets” chatted about “current fiscal policy, trade wars with China, Donald Trump’s initiatives, tax cuts, etc.,” according to the source.
Among the “Masters of the Universe” in attendance were David Einhorn, whose Greenlight Capital lost 13.6 percent last quarter as it grappled with an untimely Tesla short.
Other guests included Dmitry Balyasny, whose $12 billion hedge fund is known to throw notorious parties at Cipriani’s and the Fon- tainebleau; and Louis Bacon of Moore Capital, who famously has been locked in a bizarre, bitter property-line dispute in the Bahamas with fashion mogul Peter Nygard.
It’s not clear how much Yellen was paid, but the check likely appeared large next to the $200,000 salary she’s received during her past four years as Fed chair.
After Ben Bernanke left the central bank in 2011, an investment firm in Abu Dhabi reportedly paid him $250,000 for an engagement. Alan Greenspan, meanwhile, was commanding about $40,000 a speech as of 2014, according to a study.
Spokespersons for BTIG and the attendees didn’t comment.
At the posh eatery, which is known to charge $98 for lobster and $38 for a dish called “Spring Chicken à la Queen,” financiers picked Yellen’s brain for clues about how the Fed, now run by Jay Powell, will interpret crucial data on the economy, including jobs, inflation and trade imbalances.
The shindig was the second known paid gig for the former Fed chair since she stepped down from the central bank in February. On Monday, Yellen reportedly attended a private dinner at the penthouse of Jefferies CEO and Chairman Richard Handler, where she said that the economy was on good footing and inflation was unlikely to spike.
Among those at Handler’s place were billionaire Carl Icahn, activist investor Dan Loeb and Rob Citrone, head of multibillion-dollar hedge fund Discovery Capital Management, according to Reuters.
Yellen also had a third meeting with female Jefferies employees where she discussed being a female leader, according to the report.
A representative for Yellen, through the Washington Speaker’s Bureau, declined to comment.