WHEN: Today, Monday, December 23, 2013
WHERE: CNBC's "Squawk Box"
Following are excerpts from the unofficial transcript of a CNBC interview with Jeffrey Lacker, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President, today on CNBC's "Squawk Box." Following are links to the interview on CNBC.com: http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000230342, http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000230339 and http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000228626.
All references must be sourced to CNBC.
LACKER ON TAPER DECISION
JEFFREY LACKER: I AM QUITE HAPPY. I THINK THE TIME WAS RIGHT, I THINK TAPERING WAS THE RIGHT DECISION THEN.
STEVE LIESMAN: WOULD YOU HAVE THOUGHT THE FED COULD HAVE DONE MORE? SHOULD HAVE DONE MORE?
LACKER: MORE WHAT? MORE TAPERING?
LIESMAN: MORE TAPERING. A LARGER REDUCTION.
LACKER: WELL, I WAS AGAINST THE PROGRAM TO BEGIN WITH A YEAR AGO, SO I WAS IN FAVOR OF TAPERING LAST OCTOBER. BUT I THINK GIVEN THE DATA, GIVEN THE WAY THE COMMITTEE POSITIONED ITSELF WITH THE PROGRAM, IT IDENTIFIED LABOR MARKET CONDITIONS – IS THE KEY CRITERIA. THIS DECISION WAS KIND OF A SLAM DUNK.
LACKER ON BITCOIN
IT'S PRIVATE MONEY. THEY'RE GOING TO HAVE TROUBLE GAINING MARKET SHARE IF ITS VALUE IS GOING TO FLUCTUATE SO MUCH. BUT IT WILL BE INTERESTING TO WATCH.
LACKER ON HOW DATA COMES IN
THE CHAIRMAN WAS PRETTY CLEAR AT THE PRESS CONFERENCE THAT THAT WOULD BE SORT OF YOUR BASELINE THAT WE'D GO EVERY MEETING. BUT I THINK YOU HAVE TO CONSIDER THE DOOR OPEN TO US PAUSING IF THE DATA COMES IN A LITTLE WEAKER THAN WE THOUGHT OR ACCELERATING IF THE DATA COMES IN STRONGER.
LACKER ON 10 BEING A MEDIUM POINT
STEVE LIESMAN: AND THE PARAMETERS ARE WHAT? SHOULD WE THINK LIKE, IF THINGS ARE GOING REALLY HOT, YOU WOULD DO WHAT? 20 BILLION? AND IF IT'S REALLY COLD, YOU CAN GO 0. SO 10 BEING A MEDIUM POINT BETWEEN 0 AND 20? IS THAT A WAY TO THINK ABOUT IT?
LACKER: IT'S A NATURAL WAY TO THINK ABOUT.
LACKER ON EQUILIBRIUM
NOW THEY'VE LEARNED THAT THE WORLD'S A RISKIER PLACE THEN THEY THOUGHT AND THAT'S GOING TO HAVE A LASTING EFFECT ON THEIR WILLINGNESS TO SPEND. PLUS YOU ADD ON TOP OF THAT THE INCREASE FROM THE 80s AND THROUGH THE 2000s AND THE AVAILABILITY OF CREDIT THAT MAYBE OVERSHOT A LITTLE NOW HAS COME BACK AND NOW I THINK WE'RE AT AN EQUILIBRIUM.
About CNBC:
With CNBC in the U.S., CNBC in Asia Pacific, CNBC in Europe, Middle East and Africa, CNBC World and CNBC HD , CNBC is the recognized world leader in business news and provides real-time financial market coverage and business information to more than 395 million homes worldwide, including more than 100 million households in the United States and Canada. CNBC also provides daily business updates to 400 million households across China. The network's 16 live hours a day of business programming in North America (weekdays from 4:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. ET) is produced at CNBC's global headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and includes reports from CNBC News bureaus worldwide. CNBC at night is the all new CNBC Prime featuring a mix of new reality programming, CNBC's highly successful series produced exclusively for CNBC including "American Greed" and "Crime Inc." and a number of distinctive in-house documentaries.
CNBC also has a vast portfolio of digital products which deliver real-time financial market news and information across a variety of platforms. These include CNBC.com, the online destination for global business; CNBC PRO, the premium, integrated desktop/mobile service that provides real-time global market data and live access to CNBC global programming; and a suite of CNBC Mobile products including the CNBC Real-Time iPhone and iPad Apps.
Members of the media can receive more information about CNBC and its programming on the NBC Universal Media Village Web site at http://www.nbcumv.com/mediavillage/networks/cnbc/