How Janet Yellen Could 'Derail' Hillary Clinton

• One of Hillary Clinton’s strongest selling points this election cycle is the strength of the U.S. economy under President Obama.
• A mistimed Fed rate hike could pull the rug out from under Clinton’s argument that voters should keep a Democrat in the White House.
• A strong November jobs report on Friday would increase pressure on the Fed to make a move sometime in the next month or two.

There might be one person with more to lose from a premature U.S. interest rate hike than Janet Yellen: Hillary Clinton. According to Politico, one of Clinton’s strongest selling points headed into 2016 could quickly turn sour if the Fed’s first rate hike is mistimed.

Running on a strong economy
Whether it’s the result of President Obama’s policies or simply a case of good timing, Clinton has plenty of positive economic data to reference to make her case to voters that keeping a Democrat in the White House would be a good move for the U.S. economy.

In 2009, President Obama inherited an economy on the verge of its largest collapse since the Great Depression. Now, heading into his last year in office, the economy, including the stock market and the jobs market, appears on the surface to be firing on all cylinders. Unemployment sits at around 5.0 percent, its lowest level in years.

House of cards?
Unfortunately for Yellen and Clinton, despite the strong headline numbers, there are troubling signs that the core of the U.S. economy might not be as strong as it appears on the surface. The U.S. labor force participation rate is at a 30-year low, and middle class wage growth remains stagnant. In addition, voter polls continue to show dissatisfaction among the electorate about the direction the economy is headed.

Critical Fed decision
Ironically, the woman seeking to become the first female President of the United States could end up having her campaign derailed by the first female head of the Federal Reserve. If Yellen’s first rate hike exposes the true underlying weakness in the U.S. economy, she could single-handedly do more damage to Clinton’s campaign than Donald Trump or the entire rest of the Republican field could ever hope to do.