Summers Withdraws Name for Fed Chairmanship

[muriel_volestrangler]

199. He has many times said Janet Yellen is the best candidate

From 2010:

Yellen To DC

Good news: Janet Yellen will be the Fed’s new #2. She’s open-minded, a good counterweight to the inflation hawks who think that any day now we’ll be partying like it’s 1979. She’s also a distinguished scholar, with much of her work in New Keynesian macro.

She’ll provide exactly the kind of intellectual flexibility the Fed needs.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/yellen-to-dc/?_r=0

Can a woman effectively run the Federal Reserve? That shouldn’t even be a question. And Janet Yellen, the vice chairwoman of the Fed’s Board of Governors, isn’t just up to the job; by any objective standard, she’s the best-qualified person in America to take over when Ben Bernanke steps down as chairman.

Yet there are not one but two sexist campaigns under way against Ms. Yellen. One is a whisper campaign whose sexism is implicit, while the other involves raw misogyny. And both campaigns manage to combine sexism with very bad economic analysis.
...
The other campaign against Ms. Yellen has been subtler, involving repeated suggestions — almost always off the record — that she lacks the “gravitas” to lead the Fed. What does that mean? Well, suppose we were talking about a man with Ms. Yellen’s credentials: distinguished academic work, leader of the Council of Economic Advisers, six years as president of the San Francisco Fed, a record of working effectively with colleagues at the Board of Governors. Would anyone suggest that a man with those credentials was somehow unqualified for office?

Sorry, but it’s hard to escape the conclusion that gravitas, in this context, mainly means possessing a Y chromosome.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/02/opinion/krugman-sex-money-and-gravitas.html

He's reiterated that after Summers withdrew:

First, he says President Obama must now pick Janet Yellen — in his opinion, she is simply the best candidate:

"... it’s really, really hard to see how Obama can justify not picking Janet Yellen at this point. Nobody else is as qualified; any other choice would look like spite."

He goes on to say that he feels bad for Larry Summers:

"Just a personal reaction: I’ve known Larry for all our adult lives, and looking at this sad play I realize how lucky I am to have reached a place where I’m no longer in the rat race. Obviously I’m plenty combative, and in a way still ambitious too; I do track my Twitter followers, wonder how each column will do on the most-emailed list, and all that. But there are no promotions I’m seeking, no honors I desperately desire that I don’t already have."

http://www.businessinsider.com/krugman-not-picking-janet-yellen-would-look-like-spite-2013-9