Jerome Powell will be confirmed as Fed Chair in 10 minutes. Let's take a walk down memory lane and remember what senators said about Yellen 4 years ago. As Victoria notes, no Fed Chair has ever gotten fewer votes for confirmation. (Thread)
McConnell: "I will not be supporting Janet Yellen’s confirmation to the Fed, in large part over serious concerns I have about her commitment to the most important job of the central bank — maintaining the purchasing power of the dollar.” businessinsider.com/mitch-mcconnel…
Cornyn: “Ms. Yellen subscribes to the liberal school of thought that the best way to handle to our nation’s fiscal challenges is to throw more money at them." cornyn.senate.gov/content/sen-co… 
Shelby: The Fed's policies "present massive risks for sharp price increases on every single product that Americans buy. I voted against President Obama's nominee because I have no confidence that she will change course." blog.al.com/wire/2013/11/s…
Toomey: "The danger of a dramatic spike in interest rates, unsustainable asset bubbles, and job-killing inflation will be exacerbated as long as the Fed keeps these policies in place.” toomey.senate.gov/?p=news&id=1206
Cruz: The Fed has left us in an economic malaise + lots of other bad stuff cruz.senate.gov/?p=press_relea… 
Rubio: "I will be voting against her nomination to chair the Fed because of her role as a lead architect in authoring monetary policies that threaten the short and long-term prospects of strong economic growth and job creation." rubio.senate.gov/public/index.c… 
Grassley: "For an example of what Main Street could be in store for, one need look no further than the late 1970s and early 1980s..., I cannot in good conscience vote in favor of her confirmation." [read the whole thing] grassley.senate.gov/news/news-rele…
Kevin Hassett, Trump's chief economist: “I think that there are folks that have a genuine concern that unless you have a real inflation hawk at the fed, inflation could spin out of control as it did say in the '70s.” marketplace.org/2013/06/18/eco…
Shelley Moore Capito (then in House): "good time to take a look and see if they’ve gone far afield from their original mission and if the committee feels that’s the case, now’s a good time to rein it in. A lot of people think they’re just printing money." politico.com/story/2014/02/… 
Sadly even Mike Crapo: "Since joining the Board as Vice Chair, Dr. Yellen continues to promote the policies that led me to vote against her initially...My position remains unchanged and I cannot vote in support of her nomination.” banking.senate.gov/public/index.c…
And of course Trump's latest nominee to the Fed, Marvin Goodfriend (in 2015 a year after her confirmation):
"I think the leadership of the Fed is very very poor, to say the least"
"I think the leadership of the Fed is very very poor, to say the least"
In 2014 she was the most qualified, experienced Fed Chair nominee in American history.
Since then, well, I'll hand the mic to Scott Sumner of the conservative @mercatus --
"Yellen is on a glide path to near perfection, as she will probably end her term achieving the Fed’s dual mandate better than any other chair in history."
themoneyillusion.com/?p=32682
"Yellen is on a glide path to near perfection, as she will probably end her term achieving the Fed’s dual mandate better than any other chair in history."
themoneyillusion.com/?p=32682
And what did she get for it? Withering criticism for 4 years. And then when her work was done -- when she achieved the holy grail (4% unemployment, 2% inflation) she was kicked to the curb. 1st time a Fed Chair completed a 1st term and wasn't renominated in modern Fed history.
Jerome Powell is a nice guy. And from the transcripts he is remarkably open to new information. But he knows about 1/1000th of what Yellen knows on monetary policy. He's a blank slate. The principal thing he has going for him -- he says he will continue Yellen's policy!
I don't want to be a jerk but as far as I can tell the Obama White House made him a Fed governor because he was an R who was willing to criticize the GOP on the debt ceiling bipartisanpolicy.org/person/jerome-… and they were having trouble getting nominees confirmed by Senator Shelby
We have the first year of his Fed transcripts and his contributions do no inspire much confidence. Not terrible, but clear that he didn't come to the Fed with the experience of a monetary policymaker federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy…
in 2013 he was very wrong about a key monetary policy question -- shrinking the Fed's balance sheet. In his book @benbernanke sort of blames Powell (and 2 others) for the so-called taper tantrum. Kocherlakota, former Minneapolis Fed Pres, seems to agree sites.google.com/site/kocherlak…
Since then he's gotten better. His speeches are solid. His voting record is the same as Yellen's. He's done a lot of the unromantic work of the Fed. He's been fine. Solid. But why pick fine that's never been tested... when you could have had "near perfection" who has seen it all?
All that to say, I'd like to find some way to celebrate Yellen. Let her know we appreciate her efforts. If you have ideas, send em my way. Was thinking about going outside the Fed on her last day with a "Thank you" sign. Feels small. (End thread) #ThanksYellen
