Janet Yellen says ‘nonpartisan’ central bank close to goals
Washington — The US central bank is close to achieving its inflation and employment goals, but any policy moves will depend on how the economy evolves, Federal Reserve chairperson Janet Yellen said on Wednesday. Speaking just two days before president-elect Donald Trump takes office, perhaps the most remarkable thing about the speech was that Yellen twice emphasised that the Fed was nonpartisan and designed to be isolated from political pressures. "At the Fed, we too are nonpartisan and focused squarely on the public interest," Yellen told the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. "We strive to conduct our deliberations impartially and base our decisions on factual evidence and objective analysis." Trump has criticised both the Fed and Yellen’s handling of monetary policy, raising the concern that his administration and a Republican-controlled Congress might implement legislation to change how the central bank operates. The Fed’s structure as designed "intentionally insulates us from ...
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