Congress Must Sober Up and Get the Job Done

Richard Fisher, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, was recently interviewed by the Dallas Morning News.  The article makes for some excellent reading for those wondering why our economy continues to sputter 3 years into a ‘recovery’.

I particularly liked his response to a question about the risks of further intervention by the Federal Reserve, a.k.a. QE3.  Fisher’s reply, “by being so accommodating, we take the pressure off the fiscal authorities, the Congress of the United States, to sober up and get the job done.”  In other words, the Fed’s actions enable Congress to continue to 'kick the can' and put off the work that really needs to be done now—addressing the nation’s current untenable fiscal path.  Fisher believes our economic problems are not ones of liquidity or credit availability (two things within a central bank’s charter to manage), but rather issues of major policy uncertainty that keep job creators/businesses stuck in neutral as they wait to see what happens.

http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/columnists/jim-mitchell/20120918-richard-fisher-qa-congress-must-sober-up-and-get-the-job-done.ece

Please read this interview, and then call your Congressman/woman to ask him/her to stop hiding and be an adult.

I’ve read a lot of stuff authored by Fisher and it’s all good.  For my Republican friends, please note that Fisher is a Democrat.