Not to long after Bernanke today reiterated what was in yesterday’s FOMC minutes, that ‘more’ is always on the table, voting member Fisher is sounding like he will be one of the dissents on this. While he complained about QE2 over the past 6 months but still voted each time for continuing it, in a speech today he sounds like someone in the Fed saying ‘no more.’ He said, “I firmly believe that the Fed has already pressed the limits of monetary policy. So-called QE2, to my way of thinking, was of doubtful efficacy, which is why I did not support it to begin with. But even if you believe the costs of QE2 were worth its purported benefits, you would be hard pressed to now say that still more liquidity, or more fuel, is called for given the more than $1.5 trillion in excess bank reserves and the substantial liquid holdings above the normal working capital needs of corporate businesses…US banks and businesses are awash in liquidity. Adding more is not the answer to our problems.” I thus reiterate again and for last time as not to further annoy, while QE3 is always possible with this Fed, the bar is high and it won’t happen, I believe, unless we see a sharp downward move in both stocks and the economy
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