Former Bank of England policy maker Willem Buiter [says the Fed] pays too much heed to the concerns of financial institutions.
“The Fed listens to Wall Street and believes what it hears,” Buiter said yesterday in a paper presented to the Fed’s conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. “This distortion into a partial and often highly distorted perception of reality is unhealthy and dangerous.”
The Fed managed to peek out of its reality tunnel long enough to harump that Butler was an unguided missile, before ducking back in to consult with bond traders as to what their next move should be.
When a former high ranking central bank official accuses the Fed of being a lackey of Wall Street, well, the game has definitely changed, hasn’t it?
(The image is from a political cartoon in the early 1900’s showing control of Congress by the trusts, i.e. Wall Street.)