Loretta Mester, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland spoke earlier:
Now she is answering audience questions.
That headline comment, the way to read it … central bank officials will often express concerns about the stability of the financial system at time of low interest rates and other loose monetary policy actions (such as QE) as a way of indicating they are not happy with such loose policy. Mester is making no such suggestion of being unhappy. The taps at the Fed are wide open and will remain so until there are signs of recovery from this crisis.
(ps a lot of you reading this might wonder if there was ever a time when policy was not super loose! ... there was)
More:
- there does not seem to be much support for using negative rates in the US
- The US is going to need much more fiscal support
