McTeer has gone from calling an oil top 8 Clownbucks ago to "fairly hopeful" it will come down now:
<<HOUSTON, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Soaring oil prices are unlikely to send the giant U.S. economy into recession or generate inflation pressures in coming months, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert McTeer said on Wednesday.
Speaking at a CATO Institute seminar series, "Liberty in the New Millennium," McTeer, a nonvoting member of the Fed's interest rate setting committee, also said he was "fairly hopeful" oil prices would begin to fall in the months ahead.
"I don't expect a recession from oil prices," said McTeer, a leading monetary policy dove who dissented twice last year against rate hikes when he was a voting member of the central bank's Federal Open Market Committee.
McTeer's comments had no effect on Treasury or stock prices, traders said. U.S. Treasuries stayed in negative territory as crude oil prices rose while stock prices were mixed, with the Dow Jones industrial average off nearly 1 percent and the tech-rich Nasdaq composite up 0.7 percent.
Oil prices vaulted to another 10-year high on Wednesday, prompting French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin to propose an urgent meeting of OPEC oil producers with European Union nations and the United States.
"(Oil prices) are higher than we would like. They are higher than we would want them to be. You've got to be a little irritated with cartels who are sticking it to you," McTeer told reporters after delivering a speech.
"I am still fairly hopeful they'll be coming back down and won't be adding to inflation in the next few months," he said.
The Fed official said the impact of high oil prices on the broader economy would depend on how long prices remained at lofty levels.
"So far there hasn't been a lot of spillover into non-energy prices, but the longer they stay high, the more that's likely," he said.>>
Well, I've got one question for you Mr. McTeer - what will you do about if your "hopes" don't work out? Raise interest rates? Print more Clownbucks? Huh? |
