President Obama on October 9, 2013 announced that he is nominating the current Vice Chairman Janet Yellen of the Federal Reserve to replace the outgoing Chairman Ben Bernanke. Dr. Yellen’s nomination will go to the Senate for a confirmation hearing at a pivotal time when the whole country especially the Congress is embroiled in a crisis. The U.S. Federal government has been shut down for several days and the U.S. is expected to default on its debt if the debt ceiling is not raised by October 17, 2013. A resolution for both issues is not in sight since Democrats and Republicans are at odds with each other. The President is refusing to negotiate with the Republicans until a clean Continuation Resolution to fund and reopen the government and raised the debt ceiling.
If confirmed Janet Yellen will be the nation’s first female Federal Reserve Chairman in its more than 100 year old history. She has been the Fed’s Vice Chair for last three years. Prior to that, she has been the President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She has been married to Nobel Prize-winning economist George Ekerlof since 1978 and their only son is a Professor of Economics.