Dallas Fed President Fisher Also Talks Against QE3

Another Federal Reserve president is talking against the notion of more and more quantitative easing. This morning’s appearance by Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher on CNBC was out talking against this latest round of quantitative easing.

Over the weekend came some damning comments against QE3 by Richmond Fed President Lacker, who was formally the one dissenting vote against QE3. The only difference between the impact of what was said is that Lacker actually gets a vote on the policy while Fisher gets to voice an opinion but has no vote of Fed policy.

Fisher is against the open-ended quantitative easing because of the efficacy, or lack thereof. What is interesting is that Fisher said that Congress needs more of the blame for this than the Federal Reserve does. Fisher said that without business owners knowing what their taxes will be along with more regulation and without knowing what the government spending scenario will be, he does not believe that the benefits will work their way in.

Fisher also said that getting banks to lend with another quarter-point drop in mortgage rates remains a challenge. Lacker maintained that the latest action in QE3 did at least help the Federal Reserve live up to its mandate and now Congress needs to live up to its mandate.

Lacker said:

The government has the ability to incent the private sector through tax and spending programs. Get on with it. We’re providing the fuel. It is cheap and abundant. We’ve provided a lot. It happens to be my personal view we’ve provided too much.

JON C. OGG