Letter Attacking Bernanke, Fed Draws Criticism From Frank

In response to a letter sent to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke from a number of economists, investors and political strategists - many of whom have Republican ties - attacking the Fed for using monetary policy tools to boost the U.S. economy, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) released the following statement:

I was not surprised at the extreme hypocrisy of the Central Bank of China insisting that America – apparently alone among nations – has an obligation to subordinate its own legitimate economic needs to international currency movements, nor was I surprised that other central banks, including Germany’s, joined China. 

What did disappoint me was to see conservative economists, high-ranking officials of previous Republican administrations, and Republican Congressional leaders share the attack by these foreign banks not simply on the substance of the Federal Reserve’s proposal, but on the very notion that America has a right to give a primary focus to our own economic need for growth at this time.

Debating American economic policy is one thing; joining in a broad attack by foreign central banks, who insist that America somehow must subordinate our own legitimate economic needs to their currency requirements, is quite another. But that is essentially what the Reagan-Bush-Bush economists have asserted in their letter to Chairman Bernanke when they say that ‘The Fed’s purchase program has also met broad opposition from other central banks and we share their concerns that quantitative easing by the Fed is neither warranted nor helpful in addressing either U.S. or global economic problems.