Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling Comments on FOMC Decision to Continue Monetary Stimulus
Washington,
March 20, 2013 -
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) made the following statement today about the Federal Open Market Committee’s decision to continue its highly accommodative monetary policy stance:
“The Federal Reserve’s continued efforts at economic stimulus clearly are not working. Our nation remains stuck in the slowest and weakest recovery on record. The American people are not getting ahead and they know it. There are roadblocks to our recovery – more Washington spending, taxes and red tape – but they cannot be solved by continued monetary stimulus. So, for what little, if any, benefit the Fed’s current strategy creates, the risks and dangers it poses are considerable.
“If the Fed’s balance sheet is not unwound at the right time and at the right pace, America could be looking at another deep recession, soaring inflation or skyrocketing interest rates, all of which would make us look longingly upon the Jimmy Carter era of stagflation.
“The Fed’s unconventional monetary policy has reached the ‘Outer Limits’, and anyone who remembers the 1960s TV show of that name will recall its episodes never ended well. I fear the same will prove true for current Federal Reserve policy.”
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