The Right Woman For the U.S. Treasury.

• Author: Ullmann, Owen

Owen Ullmann is TIE's executive editor and author, Empathy Economics: The Remarkable Rise of Janet Yellen (Public Affairs, forthcoming in 2022).

Why Janet Yellen was the perfect choice for today's tumultuous times.

Janet Yellen nearly shunned the opportunity to make history as the first female Secretary of the Treasury in the department's storied 232-year history. Ever modest, Yellen had initially demurred last summer when the Biden campaign team sounded her out for the powerful post. She noted that at age seventy-four, she had been enjoying a more relaxed lifestyle and the lucrative speaking circuit during the two years since President Donald Trump had unfairly dumped her as chair of the Federal Reserve despite an excellent record after four years in that job.

Fortunately for Biden--and the country--Yellen changed her mind after friends and colleagues convinced her that her unique set of skills was needed to help rescue the United States from the ravages of an economy left in turmoil by the Covid-19 pandemic and the vicious political polarization remaining in the wake of Trump's deranged departure from the White House.

In so many ways, Yellen is precisely the kind of Treasury secretary needed during these tumultuous times. She is a brilliant economic analyst and forecaster, obsessively organized and prepared for any challenge, deeply compassionate about the need to help those suffering the most financially because of the pandemic, and a genuinely nice person able to disarm political critics from the left to the right.

Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, has aptly summed up her abilities, writing in the last issue of TIE: "Janet Yellen is set to be the most influential secretary of the Treasury in decades. Her unmatched qualifications and personal gifts make that attainable."

Republicans and Democrats in the United States Senate agreed when they confirmed her to the post by an overwhelming 84-15 vote that belied the deep political polarization gripping Congress. It was preceded by a unanimous vote of the Senate Finance Committee, where members of both parties hailed her as the most qualified candidate for the job in history even if they didn't agree with all her positions.

Here are three of the vital qualities she brings to the job:

First, Yellen understands the economy. Yellen has been a shrewd economic analyst for more than fifty years, dating as far back as her high school days. As editor of the...