As you probably know, there’s a vacancy at the Fed in the vice chair position. A frontrunner has emerged – Janet Yellen, currently at the SF Fed branch and a big fan of the ZIRPstravaganza:

Appointing Yellen, 63, who was unavailable for comment Friday, would reinforce Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s policy of keeping interest rates very low to help stimulate the economy.

The main issue now confronting the Fed is when and how to raise rates and unwind other special programs propping up the economy.

As the country struggled through the worst economic downturn since the 1930s, the Fed lowered its benchmark interest rate to near zero to promote employment, one of its core responsibilities. Now it must decide how long it can keep the low rates in place without neglecting its other main duty as an inflation fighter.

Allan Meltzer, a Fed historian at Carnegie Mellon University, called Yellen “dovish” on inflation and said the Fed was running a risk of triggering a round of sharp price increases.

Yellen “will not do much to change that,” he said.

So just in case you were worried, it doesn’t sound like anyone plans to stop the printing presses any time soon.