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FRANKFURT Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher, a top U.S. Federal Reserve official, on Thursday called for more certainty on U.S. fiscal policy to help businesses and investment. U.S. political leaders are trying to broker an agreement to avoid a “fiscal cliff” – automatic spending cuts and tax increases early in 2013 unless Congress agrees an alternative – which threatens to derail growth in the world’s biggest economy. “I’m not advocating one solution or the other,” Fisher said with respect to the U.S. fiscal policy. “I’m begging for greater certainty.” He added that a temporary fix would not help employment. Asked [...]

The Federal Reserve should end its aggressive easing campaign, said Richard Fisher, the president of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, on Tuesday. In remarks to reporters after a speech in Berlin, Fisher said the Fed’s Operation Twist program should be allowed to expire on schedule next month. Under Twist, the Fed sells short-term securities and uses the proceeds to buy longer-term securities. “I question its efficacy,” Fisher said, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Fed will meet on Dec. 11 and 12 and is generally expected by analysts to replace Twist with outright Treasury purchases. Fisher also said the [...]

Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher on Thursday likened the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy to Buzz Lightyear’s catchphrase in a speech largely devoted to the difference between the California and Texas economies. “We dare not become the central bank counterpart to Congress by adopting a Buzz Lightyear approach of ‘To infinity and beyond!’ by endlessly purchasing U.S. Treasuries and agency debt so as to encumber future generations of central bankers with Hobson’s choices when it comes to undoing what seems contemporarily appropriate,” he said in a speech at Stanford. Fisher, who is not a voting Fed member this year, saved most [...]

The United States is “drowning in unemployment,” its economy is running at stall speed and inflation is “not a problem,” but easier monetary policy is not the answer, one of the Federal Reserve’s most hawkish policymakers said on Friday. “We’ve had a recovery that is quite disappointing,” Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher told a group at the University of Texas at Dallas. But without more certainty on tax policy and regulation, he said, “all the monetary accommodation in the world” will not get businesses hiring again. The Fed this month said it would buy $ 40 billion in mortgage-backed securities [...]