Whom Does Sen. Warren Want to Head the Fed?

Since taking office earlier this year, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, has been a staunch consumer advocate, a champion of the middle class and a thorn in Wall Street’s side, which is why we should pay close attention to whom she’s backing to replace Ben Bernanke as head of the Federal Reserve.

Warren is among the numerous Senate Democrats who have signed a one-page letter urging the administration to appoint Fed Vice Chair Janet Yellen—and not former economic adviser Larry Summers, as reports have indicated is the president’s top choice—to the post.

Boston.com

Warren and Summers have a history that has been at times cordial, and at times contentious.

Warren was a professor at Harvard Law School when Summers resigned as Harvard’s president in 2006 for making comments suggesting that gender differences partly explained why fewer women pursued careers in math and science.

They later clashed when Warren was heading a congressional oversight panel. In interviews, Warren said that her views differed sharply from those of Summers, as well as then-Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. They were too supportive of the big banks, she suggested, while she stuck up for everyday Americans.

“I think we have different world views,” she told PBS’ Charlie Rose in 2010.

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— Posted by Tracy Bloom.