Poole: The Fed is Printing Money

My personal list of former members of the Federal Reserve who merit respect for their contributions to the world is rather short. Let's see... there's Paul Volcker and ... well, since he entered private practice, former St. Louis Fed President William Poole, who appeared on Bloomberg television yesterday to announce to the world that the Fed is printing money.

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You can skip right to about the 14:30 mark to hear the following comments regarding the minutes from the December FOMC meeting:

If the FOMC had set a reserve target, then that would have constrained the board in terms of authorizing new credit facilities. What's being done now is that the board's new credit facilities are being financed by printing money which is completely out of context to what is supposed to be an FOMC responsibility.

Bill's other notable accomplishments this year include announcing to the world that Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) were insolvent in this Bloomberg report that appeared about two months before the GSE's were nationalized in September.

Comments

[Kevin Lamson:]

The Federal Reserve is printing money and using it to buy god knows what. Where is the transparency they keep talking about. It seems to me that the Fed is loading up on a bunch of paper, which is of questionable value. I'm sure Madoff would have loved to have unloaded some of his worthless paper on the Fed. The Fed is just taking the heat of the CEO's of the large banks and investment banks who created the mess. I don't think it is prudent for the Fed to be buying bad debt just to bail out Wall Street. This will come back to haunt U.S. Taxpayers.

Jan 08 08:55 AM

[fran:]

have you wired or fired your reps in congress or other contacts in gov't about your position?

no one at SA or readers can help with your psition/questions.


On Jan 08 08:55 AM Kevin Lamson wrote:

> The Federal Reserve is printing money and using it to buy god knows
> what. Where is the transparency they keep talking about. It seems
> to me that the Fed is loading up on a bunch of paper, which is of
> questionable value. I'm sure Madoff would have loved to have unloaded
> some of his worthless paper on the Fed. The Fed is just taking the
> heat of the CEO's of the large banks and investment banks who created
> the mess. I don't think it is prudent for the Fed to be buying bad
> debt just to bail out Wall Street. This will come back to haunt U.S.
> Taxpayers.

Jan 08 10:37 AM