--- title: Most Americans Know Nothing About the Most Powerful Person in the Economy description: Including her name authors: - name: Jacob Davidson url: https://money.com/author/jacob-davidson/ at_money_since: 2014 articles: 106 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit Cards - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/JakeD former_staff: true published: '2015-03-10T17:31:42.000Z' modified: '2024-04-16T05:28:01.000Z' section: Economy and Politics tags: - Economy - Federal Reserve - federal reserve poll - Janet Yellen - janet yellen poll - politics - Poll - Yellen word_count: 232 canonical: https://money.com/janet-yellen-fed-most-powerful/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen](https://img.money.com/2015/03/150310_inv_whoisjanetyellen.jpg?crop=0px%2C235px%2C3942px%2C2217px&quality=85) *Can you name this mystery woman?* Does the name Janet Yellen mean anything to you? If so, that puts you ahead of most Americans. To recap for the majority, Yellen is the chair of the Federal Reserve. As the central bank of the United States, the Fed sets monetary policy for the largest economy on earth. That includes things like keeping the dollar's value stable and instituting policies to stimulate the economy, such as low interest rates and the now-completed quantitative easing program, during which the Federal Reserve bought $4.5 trillion worth of bonds. So Yellen is kind of a big deal. But most Americans don't even know the chairwoman's name. According to a [NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll](http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/03/09/janet-who-most-americans-have-never-heard-of-fed-chairwoman-janet-yellen/), 70% of the nation has no idea who Janet Yellen is. However, 92% of respondents said they *were* familiar with the Federal Reserve. That's kind of like the vast majority of Americans saying they'd heard of the presidency, but couldn't name the guy in office. Too be fair, it's understandable that Yellen would be less known than, say, Barack Obama, considering the policy-wonk nature of her work. After all, listening to someone talk about the finer points of macroeconomics isn't most people's idea of a good time. And while most Americans may not know who Yellen is or what, exactly, the Fed does, they are clear on one thing: they want elected officials to [keep out of its business.](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/02/us-usa-fed-audit-poll-idUSKBN0LY0DT20150302) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/janet-yellen-fed-most-powerful/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Economy and Politics", "item": "https://money.com/economy-and-politics/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Federal Reserve", "item": "https://money.com/federal-reserve/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Most Americans Know Nothing About the Most Powerful Person in the Economy" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/janet-yellen-fed-most-powerful/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/janet-yellen-fed-most-powerful/", "name": "Most Americans Know Nothing About the Most Powerful Person in the Economy", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2015-03-10T17:31:42.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/janet-yellen-fed-most-powerful/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/janet-yellen-fed-most-powerful/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-16T05:28:01.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Most Americans Know Nothing About the Most Powerful Person in the Economy", "articleSection": "Economy and Politics", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2015/03/150310_inv_whoisjanetyellen.jpg?crop=0px%2C235px%2C3942px%2C2217px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "150310_INV_WhoIsJanetYellen" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jacob Davidson", "url": "https://money.com/author/jacob-davidson/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/jacob-davidson/#author", "image": "https://money.com/content.money.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/jake-davidson-2.jpg?crop=35px%2C18px%2C872px%2C872px&resize=640%2C640&quality=85&strip&ssl=1", "email": "jake.davidson@yoh.timeinc.com", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/JakeD" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2015-03-10T17:31:42.000Z", "description": "Including her name", "abstract": "Including her name", "@id": "https://money.com/janet-yellen-fed-most-powerful/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-16T05:28:01.000Z", "wordCount": 232, "keywords": [ "Economy", "Federal Reserve", "federal reserve poll", "Janet Yellen", "janet yellen poll", "politics", "Poll", "Yellen" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Political economy", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_economy" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Federal Reserve", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve" ] } ] } ] } ```