Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps? (Sewell Chan of the New York Times Edition)
That Thomas Hoenig has consistently overestimated the impact of Fed policy on the inflation rate throughout his tenure at the Kansas City Fed does not mean that he is wrong today. But it is something that a reporter like Sewell Chan needs to put his article. Chan's failure to do so breaks his contract with his readers:
Hoenig, Contrarian at the Fed, Keeps Wary Eye on History: As the lone dissenter on the Federal Reserve committee that sets interest rates, Mr. Hoenig, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, has been a persistent skeptic of just about everything the Fed’s chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, has done to try to stimulate the flagging recovery. Mr. Hoenig’s latest, loudest objections, aimed at the Fed’s risky $600 billion infusion into the markets to reinvigorate the economy, have made him a champion of the Fed’s critics in Congress, on Wall Street and among business leaders, who, like Mr. Hoenig, fear that the central bank is risking runaway inflation, asset bubbles and a weakened dollar.... To him, Mr. Bernanke’s plan is “a dangerous gamble” and “a bargain with the devil,” strong words that have rankled some officials of the Fed, where dissent is tolerated but not celebrated....
Why oh why can't we have a better press corps?
