We Got Ourselves a Chairwoman!

Hi, Janet Louise Yellen. Congratulations on being “the first woman to head a central bank in any big Western nation” (if you don’t count Russia). At the Daily Beast, Daniel Gross talks about why Yellen’s status as an “actual Democrat” is even more of a first than her status as a lady, and the likelihood that she’ll shift away from Bernanke slightly by focusing on employment as well as inflation, and allowing a bit of the latter if it benefits the former. “The Yellen appointment means we’ll be in for a lot of explicit and implicit sexist comments from Wall Street about the new head of the central bank,” he adds. “But so far, investors seem to be relieved that a woman will be calling the shots.”

Here’s the full text of the open letter, signed by over 200 economists, that urged President Obama to make this appointment; the official announcement is scheduled for 3 PM.