Biden’s New Treasury secretary nominee Janet Yellen urged lawmakers on Tuesday to ‘act big” on coronavirus relief spending, reports Reuters. Yellen says the economic benefits of higher spending outweigh the risks of a bigger debt burden.
- Yellen laid out a vision of a more muscular Treasury that would act aggressively to reduce economic inequality, address climate change, and counter China’s unfair trade and subsidy practices.
- She said pandemic relief would take priority over tax increases, but corporations and the wealthy, which both benefited from 2017 Republican tax cuts, “need to pay their fair share.”
- Yellen said she would focus on helping Americans endure the final months of the pandemic by rebuilding the economy to create more prosperity and jobs as the Treasury chief.
- Yellen raised concerns among Wall Street investors when she suggested the possibility of taxing unrealized capital gains through a “mark-to-market” mechanism and other approaches.
- The former Fed chair also reiterated the value of the dollar would be determined by markets, departing from president Trump’s desire for a weaker U.S currency.
- Yellen sees climate change as an “existential threat” to the U.S economy and would appoint a senior official at Treasury to oversee the issue.
- Biden’s transition team urged the Senate to swiftly confirm Yellen, who also received the endorsement of all former Treasury secretaries.
U.S stocks are gaining as the dollar loses. SPY is up 0.79% on premarket, QQQ is up 0.41% on premarket, EURUSD is up 0.19%
