All Of Last Year's FOMC Dissenters Lost Their Voting Rights
AP | Jan. 24, 2012, 8:52 PM | 633 | 4
A A A
inShare10
benbernanke smiling tbiNEW YORK (AP) — If Chairman Ben Bernanke decides the economy needs more help from the Federal Reserve this year, he probably won't face as much resistance as he did last year.
Call it the changing of the guard.
As the Fed's policy committee meets for the first time this year, its roster of voting members is rotating slightly, as it does each year. And its new makeup suggests fewer members would oppose further steps to boost the economy.
Twice last year, Fed action to try to further lower long-term interest rates drew three dissenting votes out of 10. It was the most dissents in nearly 20 years. The "no" votes came from three regional Fed bank presidents who worried that additional moves to try to reduce long-term rates could fan inflation.
A fourth regional bank president twice dissented last year for the opposite reason: He wanted to go further to help the economy.
All four dissenters have lost their votes on the Fed's policymaking committee.
Replacing them are: Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Richmond regional Fed bank; John Williams of the San Francisco Fed; Sandra Pianalto of the Cleveland Fed; and Dennis Lockhart of the Atlanta Fed.
Should Bernanke push a new bond-buying program, only Lacker is seen as a probable dissent.
Lacker is viewed as the most "hawkish" of the new voting members, Williams the most "dovish." Hawks tend to be most concerned that super-low interest rates could ignite inflation. Doves put a higher priority on boosting the economy and reducing unemployment.
Pianalto and Lockhart are seen as centrists unlikely to break
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/all-of-last-years-fomc-dissenters-lost-their-voting-rights-2012-1#ixzz1kRbeUFOA
Realist - Everybody in America is soft, and hates conflict. The cure for this, both in politics and social life, is the same -- hardihood. Give them raw truth.
| 