Janet Yellen, a key force behind the Federal Reserve’s unprecedented and controversial efforts to boost the U.S.economy, was confirmed by the Senate on Monday to lead the central bank just as it begins to unwind that stimulus.
When she succeeds Ben Bernanke, whose second four-year term as Fed chairman expires on January 31, Yellen will become the first woman to run the Fed in its 100-year history and just one of a handful of women heading central banks globally. She is currently the Fed’s vice chair.
The vote to approve her was 56-26. Yellen won resounding support from Democrats, but many Republicans voted no.
The Fed cut overnight interest rates to near zero in late 2008 and has quadrupled its balance sheet to more than $4 trillion through a series of massive bond purchase programs meant to push down longer-term borrowing costs.
Yellen, 67, spent years defending those efforts, arguing both as Bernanke’s deputy and before that as head of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank that they would reduce borrowing costs and spur hiring and economic growth, Reuters informs.
