Regular “Locker Room” readers who worry about the undue influence of the Federal Reserve in general, or Fed chair designee Janet Yellen in particular, will find little comfort in Rana Foorohar’s latest TIME column.
The one person in Washington who can get anything done these days will very likely be confirmed in the next few weeks: Janet Yellen, the presumptive new chair of the Federal Reserve. Yellen is the Fed vice chair nominated by President Obama to succeed Ben Bernanke. She has been breezing through the confirmation process and is on track to head up what is now the most powerful political institution in America–at least when measured by its impact on jobs and the economy.
In fact, you could say the Federal Reserve has become far more important than the President or Congress as the shepherd of the U.S. economy. Washington gridlock has made it impossible for either the Executive or the Legislative Branch to play that role. “Government is not really capable at the moment, and Congress is anxious to disagree about anything. So the Fed is left with an opportunity to do something useful,” says Carnegie Mellon professor Allan Meltzer, the world’s foremost historian of the central bank.
Or perhaps the Fed’s meddlers could take the advice of those who urge: “Don’t just do something — stand there!”
