Dallas Fed president Richard Fisher, perhaps the most hawkish member of the Fed, says the it has succeeded in pulling the economy back from the brink. The Fed is seeing results in the credit markets and that the banks are becoming less dependent on the Fed. Consumer confidence is recovering and retail sales are no longer plunging, he says.
That said, he sees a very slow recover and says the US is not out of the woods and the economy is getting “less worse” overtime.
More from Fisher: The US needs to make clear it is not monetizing the debt and needs to unwind extraordinary programs as soon as it can.
The steep yield curve reflects both the improving economy and the large US debt issuance.
EUR/USD reached new session highs at 1.4322 on Fishers upbeat comments only to dip on the more downcast comments later in his talk. We trade now at 1.4305.