IN THE FI RST instalment of the "Harry Potter" series, the protagonist stumbles across the Mirror of Erised. Anyone who looks into the mirror sees the "deepest, most desperate desire" of their hearts reflected back at them. There is a touch of Erised about President-elect Joe Biden's decision to nominate Janet Yellen as America's next treasury secretary, first reported on November 23rd. No economist is more qualified than Ms Yellen, a former head of the Federal Reserve and a respected academic, for the job. Perhaps more important, however, for what is a political role as much as an economic one, people from the progressive left to the conservative right can see something to like in her.
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