The text of the group letter, as well as its signatories, follows:
To: Chairman Ben Bernanke
Federal Reserve
Washington, DC
Dear Mr. Chairman:
We believe the Federal Reserve's large-scale asset purchase plan (so-called "quantitative easing") should be reconsidered and discontinued. We do not believe such a plan is necessary or advisable under current circumstances. The planned asset purchases risk currency debasement and inflation, and we do not think they will achieve the Fed's objective of promoting employment.
We subscribe to your statement in the Washington Post on November 4 that "the Federal Reserve cannot solve all the economy's problems on its own." In this case, we think improvements in tax, spending and regulatory policies must take precedence in a national growth program, not further monetary stimulus.
We disagree with the view that inflation needs to be pushed higher, and worry that another round of asset purchases, with interest rates still near zero over a year into the recovery, will distort financial markets and greatly complicate future Fed efforts to normalize monetary policy.
The Fed's purchase program has also met broad opposition from other central banks and we share their concerns that quantitative easing by the Fed is neither warranted nor helpful in addressing either U.S. or global economic problems.
Respectfully,
David Malpass, GrowPac
Other signatories:
Cliff Asness AQR Capital
Michael J. Boskin Hoover Institution, Stanford University
Richard X. Bove Rochdale Securities
Charles W. Calomiris Columbia University Graduate School of Business
Jim Chanos Kynikos Associates
John F. Cogan Hoover Institution, Stanford University
Niall Ferguson Harvard University Author, The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World
Nicole Gelinas Manhattan Institute & e21 Author, After the Fall: Saving Capitalism from Wall Street – and Washington
James Grant Grant's Interest Rate Observer
Kevin A. Hassett American Enterprise Institute Former Senior Economist, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
Roger Hertog The Hertog Foundation
Gregory Hess Claremont McKenna College
Douglas Holtz-Eakin Former Director, Congressional Budget Office
Seth Klarman Baupost Group
William Kristol Editor, The Weekly Standard
Ronald I. McKinnon Stanford University
Dan Senor Council on Foreign Relations Co-Author, Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle
Amity Shlaes Council on Foreign Relations Author, The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression
Paul E. Singer Elliott Associates
John B. Taylor Hoover Institution, Stanford University
Peter J. Wallison American Enterprise Institute
Geoffrey Wood Cass Business School at City University London
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November 15, 2010 at 11:05 AM
’s who of conservative economists and pundits launched a campaign this week to urge Fed chairman Ben Bernanke (left) to abandon plans to purchase $600 billion in assets as part of its new quantitative easing efforts, commonly known as QE2.
