- Europe’s debt crisis is the ‘most pressing issue’
- Europe and US growth can’t be boosted with fiscal expansion, need structural reforms
- US growing at sluggish pace see modest pickup in H2 2012
- Current Fed policy is ‘appropriately calibrated’
- US fiscal situation needs dramatic sustained action
- Global economic outlook is ‘tepid’
- Long period of debt paydown,weak growth likely which policymakers must accept to prevent further problems
- Feds’s extension of operation ‘twist’ seen by some as akin to a 25-50 bps rate cut.
- Monetary policy can be effective even when rates are close to zero
Speaking in London today (Bloomberg /Reuters reporting)