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Krugman: Janet Joy
Janet Joy
I’ve been remiss in not writing anything about Janet Yellen’s nomination to head the Fed; partly that was because I wasn’t sure exactly what to say, and how to explain why I and so many other economists are really happy with her selection.
But Noam Scheiber hits the nail on the head: what’s so encouraging about Yellen is not just her track record but who she hangs out with. She is very definitely the economists’ candidate here.
Everyone else floated for the job has, one way or another, been close to Wall Street — even Larry Summers, who has a formidable record as a research economist but also a formidable record of making money consulting for financial firms. And while you can make the case in normal times that knowing finance, the markets, and all that is good, there are two fundamental truths here: Wall Street is largely responsible for the mess we’re in, and financial types have been consistently wrong — not just failing to see the risks before the crisis, but in diagnosing what would come next. Above all, they took the position that bailing out the banks would pave the way to recovery more broadly, and it hasn’t.
Meanwhile, sensible academic macroeconomics has, as I often point out, performed very well — and Janet Yellen is very much in that camp...a member of my tribe here — and I think that’s a very good thing in today’s economy. The fact that her appointment also makes history is just gravy.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/janet-joy
I’ve been remiss in not writing anything about Janet Yellen’s nomination to head the Fed; partly that was because I wasn’t sure exactly what to say, and how to explain why I and so many other economists are really happy with her selection.
But Noam Scheiber hits the nail on the head: what’s so encouraging about Yellen is not just her track record but who she hangs out with. She is very definitely the economists’ candidate here.
Everyone else floated for the job has, one way or another, been close to Wall Street — even Larry Summers, who has a formidable record as a research economist but also a formidable record of making money consulting for financial firms. And while you can make the case in normal times that knowing finance, the markets, and all that is good, there are two fundamental truths here: Wall Street is largely responsible for the mess we’re in, and financial types have been consistently wrong — not just failing to see the risks before the crisis, but in diagnosing what would come next. Above all, they took the position that bailing out the banks would pave the way to recovery more broadly, and it hasn’t.
Meanwhile, sensible academic macroeconomics has, as I often point out, performed very well — and Janet Yellen is very much in that camp...a member of my tribe here — and I think that’s a very good thing in today’s economy. The fact that her appointment also makes history is just gravy.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/janet-joy
4 replies
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