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Posts tagged ‘Lacker’

Nov 21

robin anderson

Did You Hear What Ben Said…and Didn’t Say?

In his high-profile speech to the New York Economic Club yesterday, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke didn’t give any new thoughts on monetary policy. He did reaffirm his view from September – that the Fed will be accommodative not just until the economy recovers, but until it’s clear that the recovery is sustainable.

…we expect – as we indicated in our September statement – that a highly accommodative stance of monetary policy will remain appropriate for a considerable time after the economic recovery strengthens. In other words, we will want to be sure that the recovery is established before we begin to normalize policy.

However, there were some interesting thoughts about the fiscal cliff (a term that Bernanke himself coined) and on where we are headed post-cliff.  First, and not surprisingly, Bernanke was really concerned about the fiscal cliff and the elevated risk of a recession if a deal is not reached. Second, though, dear Ben was downright sunny about the U.S. economy in the event that Washington can make a deal on fiscal policy.  Read more

Nov 1

robin anderson
3 Comments

The Fed’s Lone Dissenter

Last week’s Fed meeting was fairly innocuous. They kept rates where they were. They kept their QE in place. The language in the press release didn’t change much. Yet the one thing that struck me was the almost unanimous decision. At this meeting, as with the last several meetings, Jeffrey M. Lacker – president of the Richmond Fed, was the lone dissenter on the Fed’s Open Market Committee (FOMC). Now in my opinion, neither unanimous nor hotly partisan decisions are as interesting as an “almost unanimous” decision. I keep wondering, what does that one guy know that the others don’t…or vice versa.

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