[lbo-talk] Janet Yellen Mentions Inequality; Conservatives Scandalized

[Robert Naiman]

Earlier this month, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen delivered a careful,
fact-laden speech about rising economic inequality. This proved so
sufficiently alarming to conservatives that even the American Enterprise
Institute’s Michael Strain, a moderate, wrote that Yellen is now “in danger
of becoming a partisan hack.” Strain has kicked off a debate, hosted in the
New York Times today, over Yellen’s apparently shocking breach of decorum.

The most striking thing about Yellen’s remarks is how cautiously she waded
into the subject of inequality. Rather than actually state that rising
inequality is a problem in American life, she merely conceded that it is
“appropriate to ask whether this trend is compatible with values rooted in
our nation's history.” Strain concedes that Yellen withheld a personal
opinion about whether the rising gap between rich and poor is good or bad —
“even by focusing on income inequality,” he argues, “she has waded into
politically choppy waters.”

[...]

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/10/yellen-mentions-inequality-right-scandalized.html

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Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
(202) 448-2898 x1