Janet Yellen is an icon waiting to happen.
With her signature silver bob, single-strand pearl neck-
lace, and seemingly infinite supply of jewel-toned jackets
(collar popped, always), it’s easy to imagine the new
Treasury secretary’s image emblazoned on T-shirts and
her silhouette outlined on inspirational Instagram posts.
She’s a natural fit as an emblem of the #Girlboss move-
ment that has so finely boiled down modern feminism
into a shallow yet marketable vestige of unadulterated
capitalism—a conceit used to describe the relentless
rise-and-grind schedules of business leaders like Marissa
Mayer and Sheryl Sandberg, and to help sell “Notori-
ous RBG” merch to young women. Yellen’s Q score with
Gen Y should soon be on the rise.
On Wall Street, meanwhile, Yellen is seen as a known
quantity. The former Fed chair is someone who doesn’t
make surprise decisions—who says what she’s going to
do and then does just that. Big Finance is optimistic thatshe’ll be a business-oriented leader at Treasury and a
friend to markets. That confidence is only bolstered by the
fact that Yellen collected more than $7 million in speak-
ing fees from the likes of Goldman Sachs and hedge fund
Citadel since leaving the Fed two years ago—a revelation
that stirred a bit of controversy among Democrats.
Progressives like to think of Yellen as an advocate for
underrepresented Americans. They see her as someone who
will push for a higher minimum wage, more regulation of
shadow banking, and new legislation in the mode of Dodd-
Frank to protect consumers. To liberals, Yellen is someone
who will at last put the guardrails on Wall Street.
But no matter what persona is projected onto Yellen—
feminist hero, Wall Street savior, progressive darling—the
magnitude of her new day job dwarfs all of them in conse-
quence. As Treasury secretary, she is running point for the
Biden administration’s efforts to stabilize a teetering U.S.
economy that has been rocked by the COVID-19 pandemic.The Most PreparedWoman inWashingtonTRAILBLAZING TREASURY SECRETARY JANET YELLEN IS RENOWNED AMONG PEERS FOR
HER METICULOUS RESEARCH AND RELENTLESS FOCUS. AS THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION’S
ECONOMIC POINT PERSON, THE FORMER FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIR IS NOW CHARGED WITH
STABILIZING AND STIMULATING AN ECONOMY RAVAGED BY THE PANDEMIC. AND THAT’S
JUST THE BEGINNING OF HER AMBITIOUS AGENDA.THE ECONOMYWHAT COMES NEXTNEXT
BY NICOLE GOODKIND