Yellen takes case for Fed's easy money policies to the public

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on Monday took a page from a politician's playbook to defend the U.S. central bank's easy-money policies, citing the struggles of three Americans in a speech and touring a college workshop to shake hands with students and teachers. It was her first public address since becoming Fed chair two months ago, and the tour of a manufacturing laboratory at Daley College on Chicago's southwest side was her first high-profile effort to lend an empathetic ear to the concerns of Americans five years into a frustratingly slow U.S. recovery from recession. At the lab, Yellen leaned in to watch as Masson Covington, a 29-year-old student, demonstrated how to precision-cut an aluminum bowling pin with a computer-numerical-controlled lathe. But behind the polite questions about course studies and job prospects, the trip around Chicago may have been as much about protecting the central bank's cherished independence from political interference.

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