Simon Johnson, Columnist

Pick Janet Yellen to Lead a Fed A-Team

The best possible team would be Yellen as Fed chief, along with two strong vice chairmen.

July 25, 2013 at 6:21 PM UTC

Simon Johnson is a professor of entrepreneurship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management. He is co-author of "Jump-Starting America: How Breakthrough Science Can Revive Economic Growth and the American Dream."

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Recent news reports suggest the White House may be thinking of dropping Janet Yellen as its preferred candidate to become the next chairman of the Federal Reserve. This would be a big mistake. The best possible team would be Yellen as Fed chief, along with two strong vice chairmen.

The person we want as the next head of the Fed Board of Governors must be willing to think outside the box in the manner of Marriner Eccles, (who as chairman from 1934 to 1946 helped shape the institution for the modern world), demonstrate the collegiality of Ben Bernanke (known for encouraging constructive debate) and possess the healthy skepticism of Wall Street of Paul Volcker (who recently referred to the slow pace of financial reform as "disastrous"). Ideally, of course, this person should be able to know when it's time to step on the monetary brakes, regardless of the impact on his or her standing in opinion polls (that would be Volcker again).