In what is his most vocal argument against continuing QE2, voting member Fisher is sounding like he may pull a Hoenig and dissent at the April meeting and vote against the majority. He said in a speech, “Having done our job, I see many risks to the Fed overstaying its welcome.” While he makes the delusional comment that “our duty is most distinctly not to monetize the debt of fiscally imprudent government,” as that is exactly what they are doing, he said doing so “has proven to be a direct path to economic perdition.” He went on to say “inflationary impulses are gaining ground in the rest of the world” and companies in the US are raising prices to the point where “my gut tells me that this will result in some unpleasant general price inflation #’s in the next few reporting periods.” He summed up his view of monetary policy with this, “It may well be that we should consider curtailing what remains of QE2…Just as we pressed on in doing our duty thru extraordinary, exigent measures, we must now discipline ourselves to just as persistently normalize our operations in a timely way.”
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