The Most Prepared Woman in Washington
Fortune India|April 2021
TRAILBLAZING TREASURY SECRETARY JANETYE YELLEN IS RENOWNED AMONG PEERS FOR HER ME TICULOUS RESE ARCH AND RELENTLESS FOCUS. AS THE B IDEN ADMINISTR ATION ’S ECONOMIC POINT PERSON, THE FORMER FEDER AL RESERVE CHAIR IS NOW CHARGED WITH STABIL IS ING AND STIMUL ATING AN ECONOMY R AVAGED BY THE PANDEMIC. AND THAT’S JUST THE BEGINNING OF HER AMBITIOUS AGENDA .
NICOLE GOOD KIND
The Most Prepared Woman in Washington

Janet Yellen is an icon waiting to happen. With her signature silver bob, single-strand pearl necklace, and seemingly infinite supply of jewel-toned jackets (collar popped, always), it’s easy to imagine the new Treasury secretary’s image emblazoned on T-shirts and her silhouette outlined on inspirational Instagram posts. She’s a natural fit as an emblem of the #Girlboss movement that has so finely boiled down modern feminism into a shallow yet marketable vestige of unadulterated capitalism—a conceit used to describe the relentless rise-and-grind schedules of business leaders like Marissa Mayer and Sheryl Sandberg, and to help sell “Notorious RBG” merch to young women. Yellen’s Q score with Gen Y should soon be on the rise.

On Wall Street, meanwhile, Yellen is seen as a known quantity. The former Fed chair is someone who doesn’t make surprise decisions—who says what she’s going to do and then does just that. Big Finance is optimistic that she’ll be a business-oriented leader at Treasury and a friend to markets. That confidence is only bolstered by the fact that Yellen collected more than $7 million in speaking fees from the likes of Goldman Sachs and hedge fund Citadel since leaving the Fed two years ago—a revelation that stirred a bit of controversy among Democrats.

Progressives like to think of Yellen as an advocate for underrepresented Americans. They see her as someone who will push for a higher minimum wage, more regulation of shadow banking, and new legislation in the mode of DoddFrank to protect consumers. To liberals, Yellen is someone who will at last put the guardrails on Wall Street.

Denne historien er fra April 2021-utgaven av Fortune India.

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Denne historien er fra April 2021-utgaven av Fortune India.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.