May 30, 2011 Reading Time: < 1 minute

“Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Thomas Hoenig, the central bank’s longest-serving policy maker, said the U.S. needs to raise interest rates to encourage individuals to save and avoid future asset bubbles.

Hoenig, who doesn’t vote on monetary policy this year, has repeatedly urged the central bank to tighten lending to prevent inflation and asset price bubbles. He voted eight times in 2010 against record monetary stimulus led by Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, tying former Governor Henry Wallich’s record in 1980 for most dissents in a single year.

The Fed cut its benchmark rate to zero to 0.25 percent in 2008 to boost economic growth and will keep it unchanged until the first quarter of 2012, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists and analysts.” Read more.

“Hoenig Urges Fed to Raise Interest Rates to Encourage Saving”
Eric Martin
Bloomberg, May 29, 2011.

Image by renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

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