As a star economist and vice chairman of the Federal Reserve since 2010, Janet Yellen had a compelling claim to succeed Ben Bernanke as Fed chairman. But it was political machinations that led to her nomination for the top job. Instead of being favored for her record, she was promoted by supporters because she was the anti-Summers, an alternative to front-runner Larry Summers, the controversial Harvard professor who was President Obama’s personal favorite.

Where he was the insider —the man at the center of the Wall Street-Washington nexus and the face of the post-Clinton Democratic establishment — Yellen was seen as the conscience candidate for liberals, a champion of workers and consumers, and an aggressive regulator of too-big-to-fail banks. Congressional progressives, academic economists and outside liberal groups pre-emptively endorsed her in an effort to block Summers.