A Woman virtually nobody has heard of is about to become the most powerful woman in the world

A Woman virtually nobody has heard of is about to become the most powerful woman in the world

Yellen

Unless you follow the Fed you've probably never heard of her. It's looking more likely that Ben Bernanke will no longer be the Chairman of the U.S Federal Reserve at this time next year. In an interview Monday, President Obama said Bernanke has "already stayed a lot longer than he wanted or he was supposed to."

When asked about his intentions regarding plans for the future, Bernanke has not said much, though the Fed chairman has decided to skip this year's Jackson Hole summit of world central bankers in August, where he would normally be responsible for delivering the keynote address.

In recent years, the Jackson Hole keynote has been an important stage for signaling big shifts in U.S. monetary policy, a key driver of economic dynamics not only in America, but around the world.

This year, the most important signal from the keynote may not be in the contents of the speech, but in who is delivering it in Bernanke's place: Federal Reserve Vice Chairwoman Janet Yellen, who is widely tipped as the frontrunner to replace Bernanke when his term expires in January.

If Obama does select Yellen to replace Bernanke, she will become the first woman ever to chair the Federal Reserve, putting her in arguably the most powerful policy-making role in the world.