Tag: Janet Yellen

Opinion: Five finance ministers: Why we need a global corporate minimum tax

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Every nation is facing inequities brought on by dramatic technological change, the surging market power of big companies and the fierce competitive pressures resulting from capital mobility. The worst global health crisis in a century has also challenged the world’s economies — especially their public finances — in extraordinary ways. Some countries are beginning to emerge from the covid-19 crisiswhile others are still mired in its depths. Each of us, in our capacity as finance ministers, sees two pressing concerns that could threaten all of our economies despite the differences between them.

First, wealthy people and corporations are doing much better than those at the bottom of the economic ladder. Low-wage workers and parents are forced to choose between their health and the safety of their children, on the one hand, and their livelihoods, on the other. As a result, they have disproportionately borne the brunt of the pandemic’s economic harms. Small businesses are suffering after shuttering to protect their communities. Meanwhile, corporate revenue has soared, and high-income workers and shareholders have emerged from the crisis relatively unscathed.

The second problem is a consequence of the first. Governments desperately need revenue to rebuild their economies and make investments to support small businesses, workers and families in need. And they’ll need more, as the pandemic recedes, to address climate change and longer-run structural issues. Revenue must come from somewhere, though. For too long, revenue has been drawn too heavily from workers, whose incomes are easy to report and calculate. Capital income is more difficult to tax because capital is mobile and income more susceptible to sophisticated accounting games. Continue reading.

Arturo Herrera Gutiérrez is Mexico’s finance minister. Sri Mulyani Indrawati is Indonesia’s finance minister. Tito Mboweni is South Africa’s finance minister. Olaf Scholz is Germany’s vice chancellor and minister of finance. Janet L. Yellen is U.S. treasury secretary.

Yellen pushes global minimum corporate tax

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Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday pushed for a global minimum corporate tax rate during her first major speech in her new role, as the Biden administration is seeking to enact an infrastructure plan financed by increasing taxes on corporations.

“Together we can use a global minimum tax to make sure the global economy thrives based on a more level playing field in the taxation of multinational corporations, and spurs innovation, growth, and prosperity,” Yellen said at a virtual event hosted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

The speech comes at the start of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s spring meetings, which are being held virtually. Continue reading.

Janet Yellen: Climate change poses ‘existential threat’ to financial markets

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The FSOC focused on climate for the first time since Congress established the body in 2010.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday called climate change “an existential threat” and the biggest emerging risk to the health of the U.S. financial system, pledging to marshal regulatory forces to guard against its harmful effects.

Yellen made the promise during her inaugural appearance as the head of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, a panel of top regulators tasked with policing Wall Street behavior that has the potential to crash the entire economy.

The council held its first public meeting under Yellen’s leadership Wednesday and focused on climate for the first time since Congress established the body in 2010. The group includes the heads of the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Continue reading.

Senate confirms Yellen as first female Treasury secretary

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The Senate on Monday confirmed Janet Yellen as the first woman to lead the Treasury Department, where her immediate priority will be addressing the coronavirus recession.

Yellen, a Democrat, was confirmed by the Senate 84-15, with broad bipartisan support. All 15 “no” votes came from Republicans.

The Senate Finance Committee unanimously approved Yellen’s nomination last week, with Democrats and even Republicans touting her qualifications despite GOP opposition to much of President Biden’s economic agenda. Continue reading.

Biden’s pick for treasury secretary will be Janet Yellen

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Former chair of Federal Reserve would be first woman to hold nation’s top economic position

President-elect Joe Biden will nominate former Federal Reserve chair Janet L. Yellen as his treasury secretary, according to three people in close communication with aides to the president-elect.

Yellen, who was appointed chair of the Federal Reserve by President Barack Obama, would be the first woman to lead the Treasury Department if confirmed by the Senate. Biden said last week that he has decided on his choice for treasury secretary and that the name would be announced publicly either shortly before or after the Thanksgiving holiday.

On Monday afternoon, Biden adviser Jen Psaki wrote on Twitter: “The President-elect looks forward to announcing some members of his economic team early next week who will work with him to build the economy back better.” Continue reading.

Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen Give Republicans in Congress a Lesson on Coronavirus Economics

It was no real surprise to see Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen, the past two chairs of the Federal Reserve, testifying to Congress on Friday about the economic-policy response to the coronavirus pandemic. Although neither of them has appeared before a congressional committee since leaving the Fed, they have both emerged in recent months as vocal supporters of using monetary and fiscal policy aggressively to support the stricken economy. Last month, they signed a public letter from more than a hundred and fifty economists that called on Congress to pass another big spending bill to extend and broaden the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (cares) Act, which was enacted in March.

There is no time to lose. About this time next week, the supplementary unemployment benefits of six hundred dollars a week that were introduced as part of the cares Act will start to expire. If Congress doesn’t extend the benefits, this will have a hugely negative impact on the roughly thirty-three million Americans who are out of work and claiming benefits from local or federal programs. Many of these people, who lost their jobs through no fault of their own, will be plunged into poverty, and the damage won’t end there. As they cut back on spending because their income has been slashed, the effects will ripple through the rest of the economy, causing further job losses. Exactly how many more jobs will go is difficult to say in advance, but Harvard’s Jason Furman, who headed the White House Council of Economic Advisers during the second term of the Obama Administration, recently estimated that over the course of the next year it could be around two million.

Appearing at the hearing of a coronavirus subcommittee that was set up by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, Bernanke and Yellen didn’t get into that level of detail. Drawing on some basic economics and their experiences dealing with a previous crisis—the Great Recession and its aftermath—they did persuasively explain why Congress should act urgently on three fronts: extending the supplementary unemployment payments; providing additional financial support to state and local governments; and developing a comprehensive plan to make available adequate testing, medical equipment, and contact tracing. The two former policymakers, who are both highly regarded academic economists, also pushed back against recent suggestions from the White House that the new spending should be limited to a trillion dollars. Yellen said it was hard to tell precisely how much financial support might be needed, so it would be unwise to impose a spending cap. Bernanke said, “Whatever it takes is probably what we need to be thinking now.”

Yellen rejects Trump approach to Wall Street regulation, says post-crisis banking rules make economy safer

The following article by Damian Paletta was posted on the Washington Post website August 25, 2017:

In a recent interview, President Trump declined to say whether he would replace Federal Reserve Chair Janet L. Yellen. (AFP/Getty Images)

Jackson Hole, Wyo. — Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet L. Yellen offered a forceful defense of broad new banking regulations enacted after the 2008 financial crisis, saying the rules safeguard the economy against another crisis and rejecting assertions from President Trump and top aides that they should be rolled back.

Yellen’s speech, delivered here to an annual gathering of central bankers, finance ministers and economists, comes as Trump considers whether to reappoint her to a four-year term as head of the U.S. central bank.

Yellen, 71, made clear in her speech on Friday that she believes tighter regulations and standards have made the banking system safer and that while some improvements could be made, they should be modest, not structural. Continue reading “Yellen rejects Trump approach to Wall Street regulation, says post-crisis banking rules make economy safer”