Here’s an interesting piece from Business insider, covering Wall Street Reporter (and purported ‘Fed mouthpiece’) Jon Hilsenrath’s take on yesterday’s FOMC minutes and then session with Ben Bernanke at the NBER:
Hilsenrath went on CNBC this afternoon and argues that, in fact, the overall message from the Fed yesterday was “hawkish”… and that Bernanke was only saying the same thing he’s already been saying for weeks – that tapering of bond purchases is going to happen, but interest rates will stay pinned at ultra-low levels for a long time
The second point there I agree with. But as to Bernanke’s comments being ‘hawkish’ – well, that I don’t know about. I wrote a post yesterday about what was dovish in the Q&A: Bernanke – what was so dovish about his Q&A? and in it I did note a hawkish comment. I also wrote in another post that I kept hearing Bernanke say how important financial stability is … he said it a number of times, and I think concern over this is an important driver of ‘taper’ desires at the Fed.
The piece at BI is here: Jon Hilsenrath Is Not Who You Think He Is It is well worth a read.
