Biden to name Yellen to Treasury to lead US from sharp economic downturn

WILMINGTON, Del./WASHINGTON - Joe Biden is expected to nominate former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen as US Treasury secretary, breaking a 231-year gender barrier and putting a seasoned economist and labor market expert in charge of leading the country out of the steepest downturn since the Great Depression.

The move, confirmed by Democratic allies to the Biden campaign, will shift Treasury's focus heavily toward progressive efforts to tackle growing economic inequality and fighting climate change away from the Trump administration's emphasis on cutting taxes and easing financial regulations.

Yellen, 74, brings Biden decades of economic policy experience and is respected by Congress, international finance officials, progressives and business interests alike. She has called for opening fiscal spending taps to end a deep coronavirus recession

The post will present a host of new challenges for Yellen, whose policymaking experience has largely centered on monetary - rather than fiscal - policy. For one, it means a far more political role than that she played in her long career at the Fed, an institution that goes to great lengths to distance itself from partisan politics.

Yellen made history in 2014 when she became the first woman to chair the Federal Reserve after serving for a decade as San Francisco Fed president and a Fed governor.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, to a family doctor and an elementary school teacher, Yellen earned a doctorate in economics from Yale in 1971 as the only woman in her class and taught at several major universities before serving as a top economic adviser to President Bill Clinton.

Reuters