I am sitting at my computer looking at a picture of Janet Yellen. Yellen is taking “extraordinary” measures to postpone a catastrophic debt ceiling crisis. I had the honor of representing Idaho on the Salt Lake City Branch of the Federal Reserve. During most of my tenure, Janet was the President of the San Francisco Fed. Several times each year Board members from the Federal Branch System attend and present at the San Francisco meeting. The educational accomplishments including her PhD in Economics from Yale, Faculty at Harvard, the London School of Economics, Professor emeritus at the Haas School of Business at the University of California is impressive. She has served as the Chair of Council of Economic Advisors to Clinton, Vice Chair and eventually Chair of the Federal reserve Board replacing Ben Bernanke. Yellen was not reappointed by Trump for obvious political reasons.
Yellen became a distinguished fellow at the Brookings Institution until she was selected by President Biden to serve as the secretary of the treasury, the first female in U S History to serve in the office. Yellen was also the first female to be confirmed as the Chair of the Federal Reserve Board.
I hold Yellen in the highest possible regard for her integrity and passion for her work and our country. She is the daughter of Anna and Julius, Polish Jewish immigrants who fled to this country from a small town outside Warsaw, where many of her relatives were deported or murdered during the Holocaust. She grew up understanding hard work and compassion modeled by her mother who was a teacher and her father a family physician.
Yellen is obviously brilliant. What distinguishes her in my mind is her appreciation for the working family and the impacts of our economy on their lives. In several diners with Janet, Karen and I were treated with respect and Janet listened and interacted with us like a friend. This women is a force of nature.
Yellen is a remarkable scholar, when she warns of the potential impact of a default of the United States on our economic stability and that of the entire world, I take note. I am hoping my experience will motivate each of you to call your U S Legislator and let them know this gamesmanship is not acceptable. This is not a partisan issue.
I do have to remind us, the U S has run a budget deficit for nearly all of the past 60 years. Those deficits have accelerated from Ronald Reagan, to George Bush, Barack Obama, and yes, Donald Trump with his massive tax cuts created record budget deficits. The pot is calling the kettle black when the accuse Biden of creating this challenge.
This is keeping me up at night, so I promise to contact the folks we elected to represent us and let them know destroying the world’s currency by shaking the commitment to the full faith and credit of the United States is not acceptable.
Enjoy the week end. Mike