Owen Ullmann carefully and meticulously excavates Janet Yellen's early life through interviews with people who knew her in childhood and beyond.

It has been a long time since I read a proper biography and usually they were of people who had already passed but this one is an authorized biography that includes interviews with friends, students, colleagues, as well as family and Janet Yellen, herself. This book starts with her growing up in Brooklyn and goes through her life and career until 2020. As you might be able to guess from the title, Empathy Economics, the book focuses mainly on her career and achievements while using her personal life to explain more about her decision to go into economics and how it helps her think about her views on economics.
Yellen has spent that last 5 decades thinking about how economics can help the common man and make the average American's life better. She started her career teaching new economists and business students about macro economics in a manner that they can understand. Then she worked for the Fed, the Council of Economic Advisors, the San Francisco Fed, and now the Treasury Department. She is the epitomy of succeeding by working hard. Yellen spent her career being the best she could be and has been acknowledged for it.
This biography is very comprehensive and the quotes from friends and family enrich it so much more. I highly recommend this for those who are fans as well as any woman as an example of what we can be.

I loved this book. I think it is an honest appraisal of Janet Yellen’s career, with Owen Ullman discussing Yellen’s successes and the times she was less than successful. I also liked the discussions about Yellen’s personal life, including her family and her early years. The discussions about economics were crystal-clear and in plain language. There was no getting bogged down in economic jargon. Although the book is thorough, it never gets hung up in unnecessary minutiae. Part of the strength of the book was that Ullman was able to interview Yellen and members of her family. It gave great texture to the story. I was very sad when I finished the book because for several hours I got to know Yellen and then suddenly I had to say good-bye. Thank you to Netgalley and PublicAffairs for the advance reader copy.

This book gave a good sense of the economist's background, her research work and struggles. The influence of that and her upbringing on her policies and the audience.

An objective look about Janet Yellen, that covers her life from her childhood to becoming Secretary of Treasury for the United States. Just Wow. The book talks to many of her collogues from many aspects of her life and from both parties and they all seem to love her and admire what she does. After reading the book, I found a very caring individual who is realistic and say it like it is without being confrontational. It seems she is able to assimilate a lot of information and then is able to inform us in a way that we can understand and she relate to everyone she meets with respect and dignity. I wish I knew her and I'm glad someone wrote a book that will let the rest of us know her too.
I like the little snippets about her personal life too and what she likes to do when she has spare time, like cook gourmet meals and that she has a very supportive family and friends who are always behind her. This is just a lovely book.

Something else that I have learned from this book is why our economy works so well and it is due to many people behind the scene like Janet Yellen who come up with solutions and come to agreement with many institutions and fellow economist to adjust and change what is happening so that our economy will continue to be strong.

I want to thank PublicAffairs and NetGalley for an advance copy of this amazing book about an amazing women