Yellen Wanted Biden Relief Plan Scaled Back, Biography Says

  • Treasury chief worried March 2021 package would spur inflation
  • New book reports on internal lobbying of $1.9 trillion plan

Janet Yellen 

Photographer: Valeria Mongelli/Bloomberg
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Janet Yellen, worried by the specter of inflation, initially urged Biden administration officials to scale back the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan by a third, according to an advance copy of a biography on the Treasury secretary.

“Privately, Yellen agreed with Summers that too much government money was flowing into the economy too quickly,” wrote Owen Ullmann, the book’s author and a veteran Washington journalist, referring to former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, who severely criticized the size of the aid plan. The book is due out on Sept. 27.