JON HILSENRATH & CHARLES FORELLE
After four years of fighting crises and pumping money into the financial system, the world's central bankers are concluding that the global economy is still in a precarious position and the policy apparatus is ill-equipped to help. The mood here in the Grand Tetons, where central bankers and private economists from around the world gather each August, was distinctly gloomy. The angst was underscored in a blunt speech by the International Monetary Fund's new managing director, Christine Lagarde. "We risk seeing the fragile recovery derailed," she said Saturday. Those risks have been aggravated, she said, by the publics’ sense that policy makers' response has been inadequate. "We are in a dangerous new phase," the former French finance minister said.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke disclosed the Fed has expanded its September meeting of policy makers to two days, Sept. 20 and Sept. 21, to contemplate its options. "Unfortunately," economists at IHS Global Insight said this weekend, "the Fed doesn't have any rabbits to pull out of the hat to magically re-ignite economic growth. It is doing what it can (and that will probably mean more quantitative easing at some point), but its prime ammunition has already been used."
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke disclosed the Fed has expanded its September meeting of policy makers to two days, Sept. 20 and Sept. 21, to contemplate its options. "Unfortunately," economists at IHS Global Insight said this weekend, "the Fed doesn't have any rabbits to pull out of the hat to magically re-ignite economic growth. It is doing what it can (and that will probably mean more quantitative easing at some point), but its prime ammunition has already been used."
Central Bankers worry? About what? That their printing presses will break?
ReplyDelete