Meet Janet Yellen: Keynesian economist, Brown grad

Not only should progressives be happy with President Obama’s choice of Janet Yellen to chair the Federal Reserve, so should all Rhode Islanders. She’s not only a Keynesian economist, she’s also a 1967 graduate of Brown University, tweets her alma mater.

And, it turns out that Yellen was a lefty even before enrolling at Brown. According to Business Insider, a high school classmate described her as “a classic ’60s liberal. She has great faith in education as an answer to a lot of societal problems.”

As for her policies and priorities, the Wall Street Journal reports she “focused much of her academic research on the costs and causes of unemployment, has consistently called for the Fed to respond forcefully to high joblessness” and “she said the Fed might need to require the nation’s largest, most complex banks to carry even fatter capital cushions against losses than required by new rules set out by international regulators, a prospect hotly contested by big U.S. banks.”

Sounds pretty good to me. Even better, here’s what the New Yorker wrote about her policies in April:

In a field noted for its conservatism and adherence to free-market orthodoxy, she has long stood out as a lively and liberal thinker who resisted the rightward shift that many of her colleagues took in the eighties and nineties.

And last but certainly not least, here’s what our own progressive Senator Sheldon Whitehouse said about her nomination:

“Janet Yellen is highly qualified to serve as our next Fed chair, and I look forward to supporting her nomination in the Senate. At a time when our economy is still struggling, Ms. Yellen will bring the right priorities, and a lifetime of experience, to help us create jobs and provide a fair deal to the middle class.”