Yellen: Job Creation Must Be 'High Priority'

Janet Yellen, the president's pick to be the second-highest ranking official at the Federal Reserve, told Congress Thursday that invigorating the recovery and reducing unemployment is a "high priority."

The Senate Banking Commitee is considering the nomination of Yellen, along with President Barack Obama's nominees for two other positions on the Fed, at a crucial time for the economy.

The Fed is trying to steer the fragile economy into a lasting recovery. The nation has suffered the worst recession since the Great Depression, and the economy is vulnerable to shocks.

At the same time, the Fed will play a leading role in implementing Congress' overhaul of financial regulations, which is moving closer to becoming law.

As vice chairwoman, Yellen's duties would include helping build support for policy positions staked out by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, who began a second term in February.

"Over the next few years, the Fed must craft policies that ensure that our economy accelerates its progress along the recovery path it has begun to trace," Yellen testified. "With unemployment still painfully high, job creation must be a high priority of monetary policy," she said.

The unemployment rate is 9.5 percent. The Fed has said it will take five or six years to bring the economy and the employment closer to normal health.

Yellen is considered a dove on monetary policy. That means she would be expected to be concerned more about high unemployment than about rising inflation.

Still, she told lawmakers that once the recovery is fully entrenched, the Fed must be prepared to start boosting record low interest rates "in a careful and deliberate fashion" to avoid any inflation threats.

And, Yellen said the Fed must do its best to avoid another financial crisis like the devastating one in 2008. "We have learned a harsh lesson about teh dire consequences a financial crisis has for ordinary Americans in the form of lost jobs, lost homes, lost wealth and lost businesses," she said. "Those of us charged with overseeing the financial system should always keep this human cost in mind," she added

Lawmakers in Congress and others have blamed the Fed for lax regulation, failures to crack down on dubious lending practices and missing signs of risks, which all factored into the crisis.

Sen. Richard Shelby, the highest-ranking Republican on the committee, who's been critical of the Fed's role in bailing out Wall Street firms, sought assurances that the three Fed nominees will work to make the Fed more open — and accountable — to both the public and Congress. "Many believe the Fed's relationship with Congress needs some mending"

In addition to Yellen, the president has nominated Sarah Raskin, a Harvard-educated lawyer who is the Maryland commissioner of financial regulation, and Peter Diamond, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to become Fed members.

The three Fed nominations allow Obama to put a bigger stamp on the central bank.

All three nominations are subject to Senate approval. If the Senate confirms all three nominees to the Fed, Obama will have appointed five of the seven members of the Federal Reserve Board in Washington.

Diamond told lawmakers a central theme of his research has been how the economy deals with risk. If confirmed, Diamond said this background would be helpful as the Fed develops ways to avoid another financial crisis.

Yellen has a long history with the Fed. She has been president of the San Francisco Fed since 2004, and she was a member of the Fed's Board of Governors from 1994 to 1997. She'll replace vice chair Donald Kohn, who plans to step down in September.

Diamond is an authority on Social Security, pensions and taxation. Raskin, who served as counsel to the Senate Banking Committee, would expand the Fed's expertise over financial regulation. That would include consumer issues, which are important to Obama and Congress as they seek to revamp the nation's financial regulations.

"Even though the worst of the crisis is over, it remains a precarious time for far too many of our families and businesses," Raskin said. "The Fed must do its part to restore the underlying strength and vibrancy of the American economy."