The return of Janet Yellen
Janet Yellen, the former US central-bank chief is back, this time as US Treasury secretary. Donald Trump wondered whether she was too short for the job – she is now seen as a towering figure.

“Given a fair shot and equal chance, there’s nothing beyond the capacity of the American people,” said US president-elect, Joe Biden, when introducing his new economic team. Janet Yellen personifies that vision, says The Wall Street Journal. Having made history in 2014 when she became the first woman to lead the US Federal Reserve, she has now smashed two more glass ceilings – becoming not just the first female US Treasury secretary, but also the first person to achieve the holy trinity of heading the Treasury, the central bank and the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
The human touch
The 74-year-old economist has pledged to run “an institution that wakes up every morning” thinking about people’s jobs, paycheques, struggles, hopes and dignity, says The New York Times. “A famed labour economist”, Yellen observed that growing up in “working-class Brooklyn” had shaped her. Her mother, Anna, was a junior school teacher; her father, Julius, was a family doctor in a neighbourhood of poor European immigrants. “I heard very often when I was growing up what it meant to family life when someone lost a job.”
Fans credit Yellen with broad-mindedness, arguing she brings “a human touch” to decisions. “She understands the economics, she understands the politics, she has empathy and a deep understanding of social problems,” says former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi. “It’s very, very, rare to find that combination.” But it was her “brainy side” that shone early on, says the Financial Times. Top of her class, Yellen edited her high school newspaper – in one edition conducting “a witty interview with herself”. At Brown University, she fell in “love at first sight” with economics, later studying for a doctorate under James Tobin, “a master of Keynesianism”, at Yale.
MoneyWeek
Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Sign up to Money Morning
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Ditching academia for her first job on the Fed staff in 1977, Yellen met her husband, economist and later Nobel laureate, George Akerlof, in the cafeteria. “Not only did our personalities mesh perfectly, but we have always been in all but perfect agreement about macroeconomics,” he once wrote. Early in their marriage, the couple both taught at the London School of Economics before returning to San Francisco in the early 1980s. “I think at the time people underrated her,” LSE professor Lord Desai told the BBC in 2014. “She was ‘just’ George Akerlof’s wife.”
A safe pair of hands
Yellen finally shrugged off the “trailing spouse” moniker in 1994 when she joined the Fed’s board of governors, three years later becoming chair of Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers. Credited with delivering “early warnings about the credit crunch”, she took the top Fed job in 2014 under Barack Obama, says The Economist. Her subsequent rejection by Donald Trump (who reportedly questioned whether 5ft 3in Yellen was “too short” for the job) was at odds with her performance – “the Yellen Fed found a decent balance”.
Often described as unflappable, she has long been seen as a safe pair of hands. Yet Yellen has also “quietly achieved rock star status” among a younger generation far removed from economic and political circles, says The New York Times. In 2014, she was “mocked” for wearing the same outfit to both her White House nomination and her confirmation hearing. “At least we know her mind won’t be preoccupied with haute couture,” wrote one waspish gossip columnist. Suffice to say, no one disses Janet Yellen like that anymore.
Get the latest financial news, insights and expert analysis from our award-winning MoneyWeek team, to help you understand what really matters when it comes to your finances.
Jane writes profiles for MoneyWeek and is city editor of The Week. A former British Society of Magazine Editors editor of the year, she cut her teeth in journalism editing The Daily Telegraph’s Letters page and writing gossip for the London Evening Standard – while contributing to a kaleidoscopic range of business magazines including Personnel Today, Edge, Microscope, Computing, PC Business World, and Business & Finance.
She has edited corporate publications for accountants BDO, business psychologists YSC Consulting, and the law firm Stephenson Harwood – also enjoying a stint as a researcher for the due diligence department of a global risk advisory firm.
Her sole book to date, Stay or Go? (2016), rehearsed the arguments on both sides of the EU referendum.
She lives in north London, has a degree in modern history from Trinity College, Oxford, and is currently learning to play the drums.
-
What is the 25x retirement rule and does it work?
The 25x retirement rule has been around for decades but many experts question if it is a suitable strategy
-
When is the self-assessment tax return deadline?
If you are self-employed, rent out a property or earn income from savings or investments, you may need to complete a self-assessment tax return. We run through the deadlines you need to know about
-
The rise of Robin Zeng: China’s billionaire battery king
Robin Zeng, a pioneer in EV batteries, is vying with Li Ka-shing for the title of Hong Kong’s richest person. He is typical of a new kind of tycoon in China
-
Scotland's former first minister Nicola Sturgeon leaves behind a toxic legacy
On the left, Nicola Sturgeon is seen as something of a political hero. That makes sense… but only if you exclude her actual record in office
-
Sachin Dev Duggal's Builder.ai – the first big bust of the AI boom
Sachin Dev Duggal's Builder.ai start-up claimed it could use artificial intelligence to build apps. Its revenues turned out to be equally artificial
-
Alex Karp: can Batman save America?
The US governing elite needs to take on the bad guys, says Alex Karp, who sees himself as the caped crusader to lead the battle
-
In defence of Donald Trump
Opinion Doom-mongers thought the world would end with the election of Donald Trump. Think again, says Max King
-
Mira Murati: a trailblazer in AI goes it alone
Mira Murati fled OpenAI to set up her start-up, Thinking Machines Lab. The firm just raised a record $2bn in a seed funding round and has grand ambitions
-
Ozzy Osbourne: the working-class Brummie who became heavy metal royalty
Black Sabbath's frontman Ozzy Osborne, the people's 'Prince of Darkness', has died aged 76
-
Alexandr Wang: the AI wunderkind who takes his seat at Meta
Alexandr Wang became the world’s youngest self-made billionaire by exploiting a niche in the AI market. Now Mark Zuckerberg has poached him for a record sum