Who wants to be a millionaire? Likely next Fed chair already is

Summers and Yellen are in a tight race to replace Bernanke at the helm of the US central bank

Lawrence Summers may be a poster-child for the lucrative revolving door between Wall Street and Washington. But Federal Reserve Vice Chair Janet Yellen, his chief opponent in the tight race to replace Ben Bernanke at the helm of the US central bank, is not exactly struggling financially.

Yellen, a former university professor who until recently was seen as a favorite to take the top spot at the Fed when Bernanke's second term ends early next year, holds assets worth between $3.8 million and $11.1 million, according to 2012 disclosure forms released on Tuesday. Including the holdings of her husband, a nobel-prize-winning economist, she owns between $4.8 million and $13.2 million worth of assets.

 

That is well short of the $7.2 million to $24.5 million range reported by Summers, a former Treasury secretary under Bill Clinton and ex-adviser to President Barack Obama, in his most recent government disclosure form covering 2010.

Yet given that both are multi-millionaires, the gap is hardly large enough to become a sticking point in what has become an unusually contentious and public campaign for the central bank's leadership. Both Yellen and Summers are considerably wealthier than Bernanke, who held between $1.1 million and $2.3 million in assets last year.

Critics of Summers say his work at Citigroup and hedge fund D E Shaw over the years make him too close to the financial industry the Fed is supposed to oversee. Supporters, however, argue that his understanding of Wall Street could prove invaluable in a crisis.

Summers opponents also criticize him for his role in the financial deregulation of the 1990s that many now blame for creating the financial crisis of 2007-2009.

Both Summers and Yellen are considered top-notch economists. At the Fed, Yellen has been very active in developing and honing the central bank's unconventional policy tools and communications policy.

Yellen, who reported owning a stamp collection worth between $15,000 to $50,000, would become the first woman to ever lead one of the world's major central banks if nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate.

Much of Yellen's wealth was invested in stocks, including Conoco Phillips and Raytheon, as well as a number of different retirement funds. Yellen's detractors see her as too "dovish" on monetary policy, worrying she may be too soft about fighting inflation because of a strong desire to bring down unemployment.