On the money: Yellen's next milestone is name on US currency

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Faith in the U.S. dollar has often hinged in part on what Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says. On Thursday, the focus will be on what she writes, as the government churns out its first currency bearing her signature.

Yellen loops her capital “J” and “Y,” with the rest of her name flowing in a haste that suggests handwriting might not have been the top priority for this pathbreaking economist.

She made her reputation as a stoic chair of the Federal Reserve and a shrewd forecaster, and now she's at the forefront of far-flung efforts to use economic levers to help stop Russia’s war in Ukraine, employ tax policy to protect the planet from climate change and oversee a massive effort to strengthen the beleaguered IRS.

That puts her at the center of domestic and global politics, inviting new levels of pressure and second-guessing by friends and foes. She is tackling this challenge as the United States is suffering from inflation that hit a 40-year high this summer and sowed fears of a coming recession.

Even as Yellen plans to watch the fresh bills carrying her signature roll out at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing’s Western currency facility in Forth Worth, Texas, her celebratory remarks were to dwell on Biden administration policy accomplishments rather than her status as the first woman to serve as treasury secretary.

On the Ukraine conflict instigated last February by Russian President Vladimir Putin, she said in prepared remarks, ”Together with over 30 countries, we have denied Russia revenue and resources it needs to fight its war.”

As for the domestic economy, she said, pandemic relief and a new law to boost production of semiconductors have positioned the U.S. “to capitalize on a wave of economic opportunities for the American people,...