Now we have dueling Fed heads weighing in on QE talk.
CNBC interviewed both Boston’s Rosengren (dove), who said not only is QE necessary but that “it needs to be substantial enough that it off sets some of the shocks that we’re getting from abroad and some of the concerns that people have with how weak the world economy has been – so we’re in a Global slow-down.” Isn’t that great? He thinks the Global economy is TERRIBLE and that means we should rush out and pay 5-year highs for equities, right? What a silly market we have.
Then CNBC brings on Richard Fisher, who said additional stimulus would have little impact, as we’re already at 0.25% and that’s clearly not helping and that additional Fed stimulus now would look political and it’s the US lawmakers, not the Fed, that need to “get their act together” if they want to stimulate the economy. Elsewhere, Fisher was backed up by KC’s Esther George, who said that, at $3Tn on the balance sheet already, the Fed is only buying a future crisis when it comes time to unload these assets on a market that is ill-prepared to absorb them. “It’s always easy to buy,” George said. “We’ve never had to go back into the market to sell this quantity of assets.
Gosh that makes sense!
She said she didn’t know how Europe’s struggle to save its common currency, the euro, would come out. “Either way they go, the results are going to be dramatic and will be painful,” she said. “I see no short-term solution.”
The drought is likely to drive up food prices globally, if not this year then next, she said. George also noted that rising prices for food, energy and apparel were particularly hard on low-income Americans because those essentials accounted for a relatively large portion of their spending. “We know inflation can move quickly, and we’ll have to watch for that,” she said. The federal deficit and last summer’s contentious effort to raise…
