In the News: New York Times

Merk Senior Economic Adviser William Poole tells the New York Times that the Fed's decision to embrace quantitative easing is "essentially meaningless"

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'What is holding back the economy today has nothing to do with standard macroeconomic policy,' said William Poole, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. 'It’s a consequence of the enormous — unprecedented since the 1930s — uncertainty about the regulatory regime.'

Mr. Poole called the Fed’s action this week 'essentially meaningless, quite frankly,' adding that he did not believe it would help stimulate the economy.

'I would never have accumulated the big portfolio of mortgage-backed securities in the first place,' said Mr. Poole, who retired in 2007, before the crisis hit. 'To me, the appropriate function of the central bank is to provide generalized liquidity, and not support for particular sectors, which is properly a fiscal policy decision.'

Mr. Poole’s view is openly shared, so far, by only one member of the committee: Thomas M. Hoenig, the president of the Kansas City Fed, who was the lone dissenter when the committee voted this week.

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