Fed’s Bullard Criticizes Timing of Bernanke Tapering Announcement

St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard worried that the Fed’s decision earlier this week to announce a plan to reduce bond buying was poorly timed, the regional Fed bank said in a statement on Friday explaining his dissent.

“President Bullard … felt that the committee’s decision to authorize the chairman to lay out a more elaborate plan for reducing the pace of asset purchases was inappropriately timed,” the St. Louis Fed’s statement said.

Bullard was one of two dissents cast on Wednesday by members of the U.S. central bank’s policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee. The other dissent, by Kansas City Fed President Esther George, was in the opposite direction, as she worried that ongoing bond buying could stoke financial instability.

Global financial markets have sunk sharply since Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke laid out the plan to begin cutting the pace of asset purchases later this year, provided the U.S. economy continues to improve as the central bank expects.

via Reuters

This article is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Corporation or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. Leveraged trading is high risk and not suitable for all. You could lose all of your deposited funds.