Joel EngelhardtFormer Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and CBS ‘60 Minutes’ correspondent Bill Whitaker share their thoughts at the Forum Club in West Palm Beach.
Three takeaways, in her own words, from Janet Yellen’s hourlong talk Friday at the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches. Yellen, Federal Reserve chief under Barack Obama and Treasury secretary under Joe Biden, answered questions from New York Times reporter Colby Smith and Forum Club President Harvey Oyer, who posed questions from the audience, during the luncheon at the Cohen Pavilion at the Kravis Center.
On using tariffs to right trade imbalances
“I don’t believe that the tariffs should go into righting trade imbalances. If you ask most economists, they say that our trade imbalance is mainly a reflection of a country that spends a great deal and saves very little. And part of that involves huge fiscal deficits by the government. If you want to reduce the trade deficit, the best way to do it would be to get our fiscal policy under control.”
On the cost of tariffs
“The evidence shows that the foreign countries exporting goods to us, they’re not paying the tariffs. … The tariffs are falling on American businesses and American households. And, you know, we’re the losers. Forty percent of what we import is intermediate goods (that) businesses use throughout the economy. And raising the cost of those intermediate goods, whether it’s steel or aluminum or just a broad array of inputs that almost all American businesses are depending on, just makes firms throughout the many sectors of the economy uncompetitive. And actually what we’ve seen over the last year is manufacturing employment hasn’t risen and is continuing to fall. … I personally don’t understand what the goal is of putting these tariffs in place. So, to me, many of the sanctions that are being used don’t promote the well-being of Americans.”
On the next Federal Reserve chief, replacing Jerome Powell
“That person’s in a very difficult situation because monetary policy is not determined by one individual. There are 19 members of the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee), and 12 of them vote. And you need seven votes to carry the FOMC. … A new chair needs to gain leadership of the committee by making a coherent intellectual case for the monetary policy they want to follow. And it has to be believable to market participants. And how you can do that while also having assured the president that you agree with what he’s saying … I think that is really going to be a very tough assignment.”
Stet bonus coverage: Bill Whitaker
Highlights from comments made by Bill Whitaker, “60 Minutes” correspondent, who took questions from West Palm Beach native and retired “60 Minutes” producer Rome Hartman, as well as Oyer, on Jan. 20 at the Forum Club luncheon at the Kravis.
On ’60 Minutes’ credibility
“Every word we write, and I mean every word we write, is checked and rechecked and rechecked. … So, I’m troubled when I hear people who think that we’re just throwing things out there and it’s our opinions and whatever. I would hope that 57 years of doing this has impressed upon people that we are giving you factual information. We’re all human. And we all have thoughts and opinions. But this is not a platform for you to hear what I think. This is a platform to share with you factual information that I have gathered.”
Covering tragedy
“I sometimes wonder about what we do, you know, is it intrusive? Do I come up to someone who’s just lost their home, and am I interfering with their grief and their life? And what I found here (during last year’s California fires) was that people wanted the rest of the country to know how bad this was. And they were relieved, I guess, to know that people outside of Altadena and the Palisades were concerned, that we were there to share their stories.”
On story selection
“Stories come in from everywhere (and are pitched to the top editor, who makes the call). None of these reasons are ideological. None of them are agenda-driven. It’s just which has the best chance to really bring people new information or take them someplace new on a Sunday?”
What’s next: Hedge fund billionaire, Palm Beach land investor and Boca Raton-reared Ken Griffin appears at the Forum Club on Feb. 3. Tickets are sold out.
— Joel Engelhardt
Editor’s note: Joel Engelhardt is a member of the Forum Club.
Joel is a founder, reporter and editor at Stet News. His award-winning newspaper career spanned more than 40 years, including 28 years at The Palm Beach Post, which he left in 2020. Joel lives with his wife in Palm Beach Gardens. He volunteers on the board of NAMI Palm Beach County and the Palm Beach Gardens Historical Society.
