Fed President Unsure on More Easing

Dennis Lockhart, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, said in a speech today that even though the US economy is expanding and that the US inflation rate is “acceptable,” he is not sure that the time is right to end the Fed’s accommodative policies:

Speaking for myself only, steady even if unspectacular growth accompanied by inflation in the neighborhood of 2 percent justifies some reluctance to change, in either direction, the FOMC’s accommodative policy. At the same time, I think slow progress toward full employment justifies continuing consideration of whether more can and should be done. So for me as a policymaker, now is not a time to lock into a rigid position.

Lockhart’s remarks follow similar statements last week from two other Fed presidents. The two Fed presidents who are most concerned with inflation, Jeffrey Lacker and Narayna Kocherlakota, haven’t yet weighed in with their views. Lacker is scheduled to give a speech on Friday.