Janet Yellen on Monday became the first woman in 100 years to head the US Federal Reserve. US Senate confirmed her nomination by a 56-26 vote. Many members couldn't attend the vote because of bad weather.
President Barack Obama welcomed the vote, saying that Americans will have a fierce champion who understands that the ultimate goal of economic and financial policymaking is to improve the lives, jobs and standard of living of people.
Yellen will face the difficult task of assessing when and how to ease purchases as Federal Reserve has already announced plans to cut its purchases from 85 billion dollars a month to 75 billion dollars a month.
She will begin her four-year term Feb 1 after current US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke demits office at the end of this month.
Yellen will preside over her first Fed meetings as chair on March 18 and 19.
Janet is originally from Brooklyn.
67-year-old Yellen has previously headed the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She also served as chair of former US President Bill Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers. She was also an economics professor at the University of California at Berkeley.
Yellen has long focused on fighting unemployment and backed the Fed's recent efforts to spur the economy with low interest rates and huge bond purchases.
Over the past five years, the central bank has pumped in trillions of dollars to the economy through bond purchases to lower borrowing costs for consumers and businesses, and to boost the recovery.
(with inputs from IANS and ANI)
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