Fed’s Bullard says bank’s credibility on line

The Federal Reserve’s use of core inflation measures is harming its credibility, the new president of the St. Louis Fed wrote in an editorial released on Thursday.

James Bullard, who took over from William Poole in April, said focusing on inflation indices that exclude food and energy work well when those prices are rising at rates similar to those of other prices, “but that is not what is happening today.

“It is hurting Fed credibility to say that we are trying to keep inflation low and stable, but at the same time we are not counting some of the prices that are going up at the most rapid pace,” Bullard wrote in the bank’s magazine, “The Regional Economist.”




  1. MikeN says:

    They’re understating inflation to save money. If they counted inflation correctly, the runup in gas prices wouldn’t be so surprising. There about double due to war premium, and the rest is inflation.

  2. green says:

    the royal bank of Scotland recently issued a global stock and credit crash alert for the next three months.

    Probably nothing to worry about either.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/06/18/cnrbs118.xml

  3. RTaylor says:

    They know it’s coming, but it’s way too late to correct it. Big money is slowly moving assets around. Panic will only worsen the situation. The only thing individuals can do is avoid debt, get your savings as safe as possible, and lower your expenses. The economy has to adjust to high energy costs, and it will be painful. And yes the government is spending way too much.

  4. qsabe says:

    Banks are failing, stock market is crashing, the countries currency is being refused in some countries. Riots around the world over food and energy prices. Yep I guess from the war maniac and his oil thieving buddy’s points of view, it’s just about right.

  5. Petrov says:

    dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!

  6. lou says:

    The Gov would never feed us BS ? Would they ?

  7. eyeofthetiger says:

    Nice camel toe. Sick turds, I meant the petro-dollar.

  8. Who says:

    Wouldn’t you like to run BBQ sauce all over that!?

  9. Mister Ketchup says:

    #& – That is no camel toe, that is a FUPA.

  10. Mr. Fusion says:

    A Pot Belly Pig smoking? Geeze, who’d a thunk it?

  11. Glenn E. says:

    The Fed is engaging in “insider trading” basically, by holding back on all of the bad news, and only reporting a sanitized portion of the data. They know all of what’s really happening. And you can bet the top one percenters are being clued in privately. It just the common investor market, know as “the suckers”, that’s getting their watered down economic reports. But I guess when the Fed does it, it’s not called Insider Trading. It’s all part of National Security.

  12. innercity burgman says:

    Food and energy are the main expences of reguler folks. The ones who can’t spell anyway.

  13. green says:

    Food, water, and energy are the only things of value on this continent. China is using US debt to buy it.

    When things hit the fan I guess the US could sell military hardware to pay off what it owes. Scary, but looks likes its headed there.

  14. bobbo says:

    Kevin Phillips who worked for Nixon has just published a book identifying some 6 “sharks” that are circling the American Economy. Too many Americans live in a dream-world of economic misinformation where things like inflation are GREATLY underreported.

    Huf post as a review here:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-phillips/the-destructive-ri
    se-of-b_b_94351.html

    Technology Bubble Burst to Iraq to Tax Policy to SubPrime Loans. Interesting how he links them all together showing how one lead to the other.

  15. James Hill says:

    The St. Louis Fed consistently rights intelligent opinions counter to common thinking, including that of Washington. Their website is http://www.stlouisfed.org, and definitely worth being on everyone’s bookmark list.


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