Janet Yellen Nominated for #2 Federal Reserve Post

Haas Professor Emerita Janet Yellen, CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, was nominated vice-chair of the Federal Reserve System Board of Governors April 29 by President Barack Obama.

The four-year appointment must be confirmed by the US Senate.

“I’m honored that President Obama has asked me to serve in that capacity," Yellen said in a statement. "If confirmed by the Senate, I am looking forward to working even more closely with Chairman (Ben) Bernanke and the other governors, and continuing to collaborate with my colleagues throughout the Federal Reserve System to conduct policies that foster economic prosperity and ensure a stable financial system.

“I am strongly committed to pursuing the dual goals that Congress has assigned us: maximum employment and price stability," Yellen added. "If confirmed, I will work to ensure that policy promotes job creation and keeps inflation in check.”

Yellen became CEO of the San Francisco Federal Reserve in 2004, serving as the head office for the Twelfth District covering nine western states, the largest district within the Federal Reserve System. Yellen came to the position with previous experience in the Fed, sitting on its Board of Governors in Washington, DC, from 1994 to 1997. She also served as chair of the President's Council of Economic Advisors in Washington, DC, from 1997 to 1999.

For 26 years, from 1980 to 2006, Yellen taught macroeconomics at the Haas School and held a joint appointment with the Berkeley Department of Economics. She was a member of the Haas Economic Analysis and Policy Group and was twice awarded the Earl F. Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching, in 1985 and 1988.

Yellen is co-author, with Princeton professor Alan Blinder, of The Fabulous Decade: Macroeconomic Lessons From the 1990s, an insider’s view of the key economic policies that shaped that decade of unprecedented economic growth. She has collaborated professionally with her husband, UC Berkeley Nobel Prize-winner George Akerlof, on labor-market, income, wage, and employment subjects as well as varied socioeconomic issues.

Read Janet Yellen's faculty bio page.

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