I have just read the dumbest letter ever. I have copied it below. It’s a letter from the four top Republicans in Congress to Chairman Bernanke. It urges the Fed to do nothing because: “It could exacerbate current problems or further harm the US economy.”
I have never heard such unsubstantiated tosh. It is unclear how lengthening the duration of assets held on its balance sheet could cause harm. This is a bit rich after the ridiculous shenanigans by the Republicans over the debt ceiling, which led to a downgrade. The risk of inflation is diminishing by the hour. These guys really have no idea. This really does illustrate well why central banks need to be independent of ignorant political interference.
Fortunately, the Fed will ignore them and instigate, perhaps, the $500bn Operation Twist today. It probably raised the prospects of the Fed acting as it’s likely to have annoyed FOMC members who value their independence.
Dear Chairman Bernanke,
It is our understanding that the Board Members of the Federal Reserve will meet later this week to consider additional monetary stimulus proposals. We write to express our reservations about any such measures.
Respectfully, we submit that the board should resist further extraordinary intervention in the U.S. economy, particularly without a clear articulation of the goals of such a policy, direction for success, ample data proving a case for economic action and quantifiable benefits to the American people.
It is not clear that the recent round of quantitative easing undertaken by the Federal Reserve has facilitated economic growth, or reduced the unemployment rate . . . we have serious concerns that further intervention by the Federal Reserve could exacerbate current problems or further harm the U.S. economy.
Sincerely, Sen. Mitch McConnell, Rep. John Boehner, Sen. Jon Kyl, Rep. Eric Cantor.
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