In Lockhart’s speech to the Latin American Chamber of Commerce on ‘The US economic outlook and implications for Latin America,’ he didn’t say too much about monetary policy and I don’t think he tipped his hat to how he would vote at the Sept 13th FOMC meeting. His focus in the speech was predominantly on the topic of Latin America. At the end of the speech though he did say “There is a risk to monetary policy being employed too aggressively and without effect to address economic problems that can be resolved only by fiscal reforms that involve making tough choices about the allocation of public resources. Monetary policy can exert a powerful positive influence on an economy, but as Chairman Bernanke has pointed out, monetary policy is not a panacea.” While Lockhart leans more to the hawkish side and these comments would maybe hint at his no vote to more QE, I would have expected something more emphatic in his commentary if he was firmly leaning against it. This, especially in light of the heightened debate just a week before Jackson Hole and then the Sept FOMC meeting.
