Richard Fisher interview excerpts

Via ValueWalk:

On recent reports from the San Francisco Federal Reserve that suggest bond buying and money printing has a very minimal effect on the GDP: 

“I argued that when I argued against this program so I am happy to see and they have one of the best research departments in the entire Federal Reserve system. The point is we’ve gone through this program, interest rates have been at historic lows, we’ve had a secular trend as well as this final crescendo, which was assisted by the Federal Reserve program. I think it certainly helped corporations clean up their balance sheets. I don’t think there’s any question about that. At the same time, there were some costs. Savers have been hit, small banks and other intermediate bank sizes have been hurt in terms of their interest rate margins. It has exacerbated that decline in interest rate margins that occurred over the last 20 years. So there are costs and benefits. Again, the benefits of QE3 and the efficacy of that program are constantly being analyzed and we’ll just see what the committee as a whole, because it is a committee of 19 people, decides under Chairman Bernanke’s leadership in September and in subsequent meetings.”