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August 25, 2011 at 11:10 AM
One day before policymakers meet in Jackson Hole, Wyo., Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Thomas Hoenig on Thursday said there’s only so much the central bank can do to help the economy, and that the policy should pivot to focus on the country’s fiscal problems.
“We can’t do it all,” Hoenig, the central bank’s longest- serving policy maker, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “We have a problem in this country with debt” and “if we don’t turn to the long run, we will be dealing with overnight crises for as far as the eye can see.”
According to Bloomberg, Hoenig was joined by Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher in saying “monetary policy can’t be expected to cure all that ails the economy, and shouldn’t be used to target high unemployment.”
Hoenig told the news service it probably isn’t “a surprise” to learn that he would have dissented from the FOMC’s Aug. 9 decision to keep rates near zero through at least mid-2013. Hoening doesn’t vote on the Federal Open Market Committee this year.
