Growth Better Than It Looks; No Easing ‘Gifts’: Fed’s Fisher

The U.S. economy is recovering at an even faster pace than the data suggest, negating any need for further monetary easing, Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher told CNBC.

CNBC.com

With unemployment heading lower and housing sales posting gradual increases, Fisher said Wall Street chatter about a third round of quantitative easing — or QE3 — is probably “wishful thinking.”

“The tone is a lot better. It’s not brilliant, we don’t have enough new hiring taking place,” he said, adding that the numbers are “definitely moving in the right direction, and my personal feeling...is that things are better than the numbers might suggest, or at least moving in the right direction. There is a better tone out there, and I think we need to take note of that.”

Following the Fed’s most recent Federal Open Markets Committee meeting, Fisher told reporters that QE3 is a “Wall Street fantasy” that won’t happen.

In his remarks during a live CNBC interview, he tempered his comments just a bit, but still indicated that further easing is not forthcoming, no matter how much Wall Street may want it.

The Fed’s balance sheet currently stands at $2.9 trillion, and some economists and strategists worry that more QE would risk inflation .

“It’s almost like they hope something’s going to help push them along, that we’re supposed to give gifts to the Street. That’s not what we do,” Fisher said.

“Our job is not to prop up the Street,” he added. “ ‘Fantasy’ may be too strong — wishful thinking, wantful thinking, if that’s word. But I would focus on the real economy. We focus on the real economy, and that’s our duty.”