Paul Krugman has strongly spoken up for Yellen, from the beginning.
Though he liked both Summers and Yellen, and thought they were both "heads and shoulders" above anyone else being mentioned.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/19/the-fed-succession/
Rumors flying all over; supposedly it’s between Janet Yellen, the obvious choice, and Larry Summers, with totally unsubstantiated claims that LS’s star is rising. So I guess that, despite an intense desire to stay out of the whole thing (I know and admire both players), I need to say something — not an endorsement, but some sense of how I and others I talk to see this.
First of all, what do we need in a Fed chair? Above all, a committed dove — someone who will not succumb to the pressure to tighten policy too soon, and almost equally important, someone who will be seen by investors as resistant to this temptation. We’ve just seen how much damage even a hint of Fed hawkishness can do; it’s really critical to not follow the far worse step of making an appointment that gives the wrong signal.
As it happens, both Janet and Larry have good credentials on those grounds, at least in terms of what they’ve said in recent years.
SNIP
So what we have here are two highly qualified candidates, head and shoulders above anyone else I’ve heard mentioned and inconceivably better than the men who might have been in contention if that guy who ran with Paul Ryan had won. But if the final choice isn’t Janet Yellen, I think the president is going to have to offer a very good explanation of why not, or face a lot of grief from people who want to think the best of his administration.