Last week, President Obama announced he would nominate Janet Yellen ’67 to be chair of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. We commend this well-considered choice, made after months of confusion and national speculation.
The move has seen widespread approval, with the Washington Post, for example, noting Yellen's “unusually strong credentials for the job.” The Post, like almost every other news outlet that reported the announcement, continued to characterize the moment as a triumph for all “women in economics” — “cracking the ultimate glass ceiling in the field.” The example Yellen has set throughout her career has been one of continued achievement and competence. We are inspired by her appointment and hope to see her nomination swiftly approved by the Senate.
Yellen’s nomination marks a break from a male-dominated, insider-focused ethos in national politics. The move follows widespread speculation that President Obama had planned on picking Lawrence Summers, former president of Harvard, to head the Federal Reserve. Summers is a longtime Obama economic confidant but attracted negative attention from many liberal senators for his policies during the Clinton administration, where he worked at the Treasury Department and finally as Secretary of the Treasury. Summers championed deregulatory policy that ultimately proved catastrophic and has long been known for his abrasive and thoughtless comments. Many students here, particularly female students, may remember him best as the Harvard president who resigned for, among other reasons, suggesting that the underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics could be explained by “issues of intrinsic aptitude.”
Summers was the presumptive nominee before he announced in mid-September that he was withdrawing his name from consideration following protests from Senate liberals. Though we believe Summers should not have been so abandoned by the Obama administration, we contend he never should have been first in line for the position. Yellen, as the current Fed vice chair, should have been the presumptive nominee for the top spot all along. She was the former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and a noted economics professor at University of California, Berkeley. She has proven prescient on many occasions, including when she warned 10 years ago about the potential for a bubble in housing prices and more recent statements predicting a slow economic recovery. As the New York Times noted, “Yellen has spent more than half of the last 20 years as a top Fed official.”
The deep irony of this situation, of course, is that Yellen is and has this whole time been more qualified for the position. If she had been passed over in favor of Larry Summers, as many thought she would be, it would have been for a fundamentally unscientific reason — that President Obama has worked with Summers for years and knows him personally. The conditions surrounding Yellen’s appointment may have been messy, but they only emphasize the significance and value of having women — particularly ones as unquestionably qualified as Yellen — in senior positions. Shattering the glass ceiling may leave a few shards, but it also paves the way for the next generation of women.
Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board: its editor, Rachel Occhiogrosso, and its members, Daniel Jeon, Hannah Loewentheil and Thomas Nath. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
ADVERTISEMENT
