Bankruptcy

Fed Meeting Minutes Reveal Split

By mcbride

Reports indicate that although the Federal Reserve’s final vote on the newest effort to prime the pump showed only one dissenter, there was much wider concern among the members over the proposed (now approved) bond purchases.  Call it TARP One or Two, under the Bush administration or the stimulus and now quantitative easing under the present administration, it is all a Keynesian styled effort to revive a falling economy by pumping more money into the system. 

“Federal Reserve policymakers clashed over the benefits and risks of launching a $600 billion program to rejuvenate the economy, but voted for it anyway, according to minutes of their closed-door deliberations released Tuesday.

Despite a near unanimous 10-1 vote in support of the program, the minutes from the Nov. 3 meeting show that some Fed officials had concerns about embarking on a second round of stimulus. The minutes also reveal that the Fed held a secret meeting in mid-October to talk about its communications strategy.

Some officials thought the additional purchases of government debt would have limited effect in revving up the economy. Some also worried about risks — unleashing inflation or causing a destabilizing slide in the value of the U.S. dollar.

In the end, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke persuaded all but one of his colleagues to back the plan. Thomas Hoenig, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, was the sole dissenter.”

Here is a link: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Fed-minutes-Officials-clashed-apf-2175128911.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=main&asset=&ccode=

Michael

Full post as published by Texas Lawyer Blog on November 23, 2010 (boomark / email).