Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, wasn't too impressed with Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's testimony to the Joint Economic Committee Wednesday.
Furchtgott-Roth thinks Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Tex., had it right when he accused Yellen of offering a "don't worry, be happy" monetary message.
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Several of Yellen's points "made no sense,"
Furchtgott-Roth writes on MarketWatch.
- "Most important, will the Fed be able to keep inflation in check at 'only' 2 percent, its target goal, after its massive monetary accommodation?"
- "Asset bubbles." Yellen underplayed the risk of a bubble in the stock market, Furchtgott-Roth, says.
- "[The] Fed is responsible for increased income inequality," as Fed scholar Allan Meltzer points out.
- "The role of forward guidance." The Fed has made its guidance so wishy-washy that it "is essentially no guidance," Furchtgott-Roth writes.
- Yellen attributed the paltry 0.1 percent GDP growth rate of the first quarter to weather. But "there are good reasons not to blame the weather," Furchtgott Roth says.
- As for the drop in the labor force participation rate, Yellen pegged it to retirements, "even though young and middle-aged people are also working less," Furchtgott-Roth writes.
Renowned economist Nouriel Roubini of New York University says the Fed faces a dilemma.
"If you exit [from easing] too soon, you get a bond market crash and kill the economy,"
he told Fox Business Network.
"If you exit too late, you create a financial bubble. That's the biggest challenge for the Fed in the next three to four years."
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