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One of just two women on the list, Yellen is the first woman to head the most influential central bank in the world and its $4.5 trillion in assets. As Fed Chair, Yellen controls the monetary policy – that is, the money supply and interest rate levels – of the world’s most powerful economy. The fates of everyone from Wall Street bankers to unemployed Greek teens depend largely on her actions. She has said the Fed will keep short-term interest rates near zero but her top priority is to somehow remedy the gap between rich and poor. “The extent of and continuing increase in inequality in the United States greatly concern me.” That goal might be back-burnered as she turns to nurture the tremulous recovery of the U.S. through the gale-force winds of cratering oil prices.
