Weekly Comic: Yellen Says Goodbye as Successful Fed Chair Term Comes to An End

Investing.com – At Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s last policy meeting as head of the central bank on Wednesday, the Fed announced it was , a move that was widely expected, but said inflation is likely to rise this year.

Those comments signaled that borrowing costs will continue to climb under incoming central bank chief Jerome Powell.

The majority of economists believe that the Fed will hike rates in March, followed by another hike in June, with a third move higher arriving in December.

Yellen ended a four-year term as head of the U.S. central bank, that many analysts described as a remarkable success.

She gets credit for managing the Fed’s transition from an ultra-easy monetary policy put in place by her predecessor Ben Bernanke during the Great Recession.

After holding rates at zero for almost the first three years of her tenure, Yellen has engineered four rate hikes since December 2016 in an attempt to normalize monetary policy.

In addition, last September, she launched a plan to taper the Fed’s massive $4.5 trillion holdings of Treasurys and mortgage backed securities.

On the economy front, Yellen is given credit for lowering the unemployment rate from 6.7% when she entered office in February 2014 to 4.1% last month, the lowest level since 2000.

Inflation has also picked up during her tenure, but it remains stubbornly below the Fed’s 2%-target.

In the market, stocks have roared ahead under Yellen, with the Dow () up by more than 70% during her four years in charge.

Given all these successes, Jay Powell has been set a very tough bar to match as the next Fed boss.

To see more of Investing.com’s weekly comics, visit: http://www.investing.com/analysis/comics

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