Bernanke's Heir Apparent Janet Yellen, a Bird of a Different Feather?

Eating in the employee cafeteria was considered outré for Federal Reserve governors when Janet Yellen joined the board in 1994—so much so that a writer for the Minneapolis Fed’s quarterly magazine, The Region, called her on it in an interview. “It is a bit uncommon, because the Board is a somewhat hierarchical place,” Yellen confessed. “I can’t frankly tell you why that is. But that’s not the way I operate. Eating in the cafeteria with the staff is a pretty good way to learn what people are thinking about, what’s on their mind. And I enjoy the interaction.”

The Fed is a far more open place today, and Yellen, now the Fed’s vice chairman, deserves a share of the credit. Governors are now as commonplace as ketchup bottles in the cafeteria. More important, monetary policy is transparent. In January 2012, on the recommendation of a communications committee Yellen headed, the Fed for the first time announced its targets for inflation (2 percent) and the unemployment rate (5.2 percent to 6 percent). “I hope and trust that the days of ‘never explain, never excuse’ are gone for good,” she told the Society of American Business Editors and Writers this April.