Yellen's legacy as Fed chief: Full employment but unfinished business

WASHINGTON - Even during her final news conference as chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, Janet L. Yellen last month stuck to the careful approach that helped her guide the central bank through a pivotal period.

Asked if she was disappointed that her historic tenure as the first woman to lead the Fed was ending after just one term, she demurred. She brushed off a query about whether the Republican tax cuts were ill-timed. She wouldn't even bite on a lighthearted question about which black dot was hers on the quarterly chart of Fed policymakers' interest rate forecasts.

"I've never been willing to reveal which dot is mine," she said, smiling, "and I'm not going to change that now."

When Yellen steps down next month, she'll depart with the economy in strong shape and monetary policymakers armed with more options than they've had in years, should it falter.

But the soft-spoken former UC Berkeley economist also leaves some important unfinished business after an unusually short four-year stint as leader of the world's most influential central bank.

While the nation has essentially returned to full employment