We Must Start Ignoring the Unemployment Rate

Janet Yellen will make history at the end of the month when she takes office as chair of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, making her the most influential female policymaker the United States has ever seen. But she also takes office under historically unique circumstances. For the first time in the Fed’s 100-year history, its chair is going to need the guts to ignore the unemployment rate, despite intense pressure to do the opposite.