White House chief economist Yellen to resign

(Adds Yellen interview, details, Clinton comments By Randall Mikkelsen

WASHINGTON, June 8 (Reuters) - Janet Yellen, President Clinton's chief in-house prognosticator on an economy that has kept booming through her tenure, said Tuesday she was leaving her post to return to academia.

Yellen said in an interview she would step down as chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisors to return to her post as a business professor at the University of California Berkeley campus, accompanying her economist husband as he returns to the university from a two-year leave.

"It's purely a personal reason," Yellen said. The exact time of her departure will depend on how soon her successor can take over.

White House officials said Martin Baily, a former member of the council now working for the McKinsey and Co. consultant firm, was the most likely candidate to succeed Yellen.

Yellen is the the third senior U.S. economic official to announce her departure in a month.

Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, Clinton's most powerful economic manager, announced his resignation last month, and Federal Reserve Vice Chairwoman Alice Rivlin unexpectedly resigned last week.

But Yellen said U.S. economic leadership remains in strong hands and there is no reason to think the long U.S. economic boom would end soon.

"There's more of the same on the horizon of good times," she said. "There's no obvious reason for the good times to end."

"I don't think the administration and the economic team will have any difficulty replenishing itself," she said.

Yellen endorsed Baily as a strong economist. "If Baily is chosen as my successor he will be a outstanding appointment...a very strong addition to the economic team."

Yellen left a position as a Federal Reserve governor -- to which she had been appointed by Clinton in 1994 -- to take the White House post in early 1997.

President Clinton, in a statement, said he was "sorry to learn" of Yellen's intention to resign. "Janet has been a consistent advocate for sound economic policy, and she has been an important contributor to the extraordinary economic progress we have made in recent years," he said.

Said Yellen in her interview, "I take a huge pride in the accomplishments that he (Clinton) and his administration have had in economic policy."

Yellen said her husband, George Akerlof, had been living with her in Washington for the last two years and working at the Brookings Institution, after spending the three previous years commuting from California and working for both Berkeley and Brookings.

With his leave from Berkeley ending, Yellen said, the couple agreed they did not want to return to the bi-coastal commuting life.

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There's more than Handwriting on the wall here!!

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), June 09, 1999

Answers

Rats leaving a sinking ship,

patently obvious what's going on here eh pooleCrETin, Flint et al???

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), June 09, 1999.

Come on Andy, Ray. If you don't start believing these government stooges , I mean patriots, I'm going to have Bill wag his finger at you --- maybe even bite his lip.

-- Jon Johnson (narnia4@usa.net), June 09, 1999.

And last week, something that got very little press, the MicroSoft Technology chied taking a one year "sabbatical" - yup, right over the y2k timefrime

I guess he's "windowing" himself...'

Bwwwwwaaaaaaaaaahahahahaahahahahahahah

I crack myself up sometimes,

and pooleCrETin,

I found it....

Here ===========> .

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), June 09, 1999.

Today the chairman of Kodak resigned also.

-- CU (WatchingCEO's@CU.com), June 09, 1999.

Andy

Is there a name for whatever you use in place of logic? Or does it come out of a pipe or something?

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), June 09, 1999.

Micro child is going off to "dig for dinosaurs". Richard Branson is giving his people "the night off". Fortune 500 companies are buying generators.If none of this smacks of the obvious to you, you need a brain scan.

-- Gia (Laureltree7@hotmail.com), June 09, 1999.

I think there were 3 on that board. This leaves 0.

-- FLAME AWAY (BLehman202@aol.com), June 09, 1999.

Simple. When you are faced with an insurmountable problem, declare victory and leave!

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), June 09, 1999.