US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says inflation in the United States should continue to fall over the next year barring unexpected shocks to the global economy.
in one wide-ranging interview With 60 Minutes correspondent Norah O’Donnell, Yellen discussed the state of the US economy, the risk of a recession and the economic impact of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
“There is a risk of a recession. But in my opinion it’s certainly not necessary to bring inflation down,” Yellen said.
“When I talk to business leaders, they say, ‘We’re preparing for a recession,'” O’Donnell told Yellen. “Some have said to me: ‘Ask the finance minister. What does she know that we don’t?’”
“Economic growth is slowing down significantly. And companies see that. You see, we recovered very quickly from the pandemic. Economic growth was very high. We have closed this gap. We have a healthy job market. To bring down inflation, and because almost everyone who wants a job has a job, growth has to slow down,” Yellen said. “We’ve reached full employment or beyond grows as it has grown to get people back to work.”
Yellen, a central figure in modern American economics, is the nation’s first female Treasury Secretary and was the first woman to serve as Chair of the Federal Reserve Board from 2014 to 2018. She is the only person to have headed both agencies and the White House Council of Economic Advisers, which advises the President on national and international economic policy.
Eric Kerchner/60 minutes
Yellen told 60 Minutes that she intends to continue in her post for the duration of President Joe Biden’s term in office.
“I’m really excited about the work we’re doing,” Yellen told O’Donnell. “That includes things like transforming the Internal Revenue Service into a modern, customer-friendly, highly efficient operation, and closing a very unfair tax loophole where lower-income people, who have mostly wage income, pay the taxes they do payments are due by.”
Foreign Minister Yellen also said the country needs to modernize its tax system. American tax law can often be confusing, difficult to navigate, and difficult for taxpayers to access. This was announced by the National Taxpayer Advocate, an independent organization within the IRS in the 2021 tax year Americans made 282 million calls to the tax collection service, of which only 11% were answered.
Norah O’Donnell traveled with Secretary Yellen to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Fort Worth, Texas, where Secretary and US Treasurer Lynn Malerba saw their names printed on US currency for the first time. Malerba, a chief of the Mohegan tribe, is the first Native American woman to have her name printed on US money.
“I think it shows that women are making decent advancement in all endeavors in the United States, but especially in business and economics, [where] Women are underrepresented,” Yellen said.
Secretary Yellen and Treasurer Malerba were shown the new bills by Charlene Williams, Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP). Williams has worked for BEP for nearly 35 years, overseeing the production of America’s paper money.
“The engraving process is very precise,” Williams told 60 Minutes Overtime. “When the $1 signatures for the new Secretary and Treasurer were being prepared for the $1 bill, they were engraved by hand… using tools that are over 100 years old. They are literally passed down from generation to generation.”
Williams told 60 Minutes it will take between 22 and 26 weeks to incorporate a new series of signatures into US currency.
“I started my career in 1988 and US currency has really changed since I first worked for the BEP,” Williams told 60 Minutes Overtime. “It used to be black and green ink… It’s really changed over time. Our currency circulates around the world. We look to see how we can evolve and always work to protect the hard-earned currency that is carried in people’s pockets every day. Finally, let’s look at how we can always build strong security features that protect United States fiat currency.”
It took Williams 60 minutes to tour the BEP facility in Texas, which prints millions of banknotes and more than half of American dollars every day. The remainder is printed at BEP’s Washington, DC facility. The country’s coinage is produced by the US Mint, another department of the Treasury Department.
In the video above, you can follow the multi-step production process that BEP undertakes to create the American dollar. It begins with an order from the Federal Reserve, uses gravure printing, and takes an average of four weeks to produce. But even when the banknotes leave the BEP facility, they still have to go through an extra step before they reach public hands.
“If you want to know how much money we really have here, it’s zero,” Williams said. “It’s not a dollar until it becomes the property of the Federal Reserve Board. If they take possession of that currency, it will be monetized through their system.”
The video above was produced by Keith Zubrow and edited by Sarah Shafer Prediger. Keith Sharman contributed to the play.
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