I offer you this article from today's Huffington Post, not to tear down Janet Yellen - whom I heartily endorse - but as a mild cautionary tale.
According to the article:
While supporting Yellen has become a cause célèbre for progressives opposed to Summers' regulatory hostilities, Yellen supported a host of economic policies during the Clinton era that have since become broadly unpopular. She backed the repeal of the landmark Glass-Steagall bank reform and she supported the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement. She also pressured the government to develop a new statistical metric intended to lower payments to senior citizens on Social Security.
These policies all enjoyed substantial support among economists during the 1990s, although many of those who endorsed them at the time have since recanted or criticized their implementation.
Unless I read too quickly, the article does not indicate whether or not Yellen has recanted these views. Whether she has or not, I am still a strong supporter. The truth is that those views were solidly in the mainstream and her credentials remain impeccable.
But I do think her past should give pause to those who were, and are, so quick to condemn nominees either because: (a) they worked in administrations when mistakes were made; or (b) once endorsed views that, though in the mainstream before, are now viewed as errors, even serious errors.
Indeed, I suspect that Yellen's experience may make her especially wary of future efforts at deregulation.
Just sayin'.