BIS Warns About the Risky Bets of Central Banks

If Fed officials aren’t having second thoughts about QE and are about to proceed full-bore, maybe they should stop to reconsider. That seems to be the advice from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). Today’s WSJ includes an article co-authored by Jon Hilsenrath, the newspaper’s plugged-in Fed watcher, titled, “Inside the Risky Bets of Central Banks.”

According to the article:

“Vocal critics include economists at the BIS, an international body based here that is increasingly an important staging ground for talks about the post crisis financial landscape. They say central banks, seeking faster growth, are stretched too thin. ‘Central banks cannot solve structural problems in the economy,’ said Stephen Cecchetti, who runs the BIS monetary department. ‘We've been saying this for years, and it's getting tiresome.’”

(Based on an excerpt from YRI Morning Briefing)