QE2 Should Be "High-Water Mark" For Stimulus

Richmond Federal Reserve president Jeffrey Lacker is out with some comments today regarding monetary policy, and he said that the second round of quantitative easing should be the "high-water mark" of stimulus efforts. Lacker wants to keep inflation in check, and is a noted inflation hawk. He said that going forward, the focus of the Federal Reserve will be removing stimulus, not adding to it. "To prevent that, it may be necessary to initiate policy tightening well before the unemployment rate has fallen to a rate we would expect to see over the long run," Lacker said. "We should be careful not to read too much into every month's little data jiggle."