Yellen Sends Trump the Right Message

Janet Yellen isn't the ingratiating type. In a closely followed speech last week, she made it plain that she disagrees with President Donald Trump and many of his officials about financial regulation. This frankness is unlikely to help her prospects of reappointment when her term as Fed chair ends in February -- but it was welcome nonetheless.

Speaking at the Kansas City Fed's annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Yellen defended in broad terms the rules that the U.S. has adopted to strengthen the financial system since the crash of 2008. She urged policy makers to remember the lessons and the dreadful costs of that crisis, and explained at length how stricter regulation had made banks and other financial institutions more resilient. She's right: Nostalgia for the regulatory neglect that prevailed before the crash is wholly misplaced.