June 2011 FOMC Meeting Minutes Has Dour Feel

Econintersect: The cheerleaders of the economy appear to be a fairly sullen lot.  The Federal Open Market Committee 21 – 22 June 2011 meeting minutes apparently could not produce one positive economic statement without a conditional statement.  Conditional statements were not attached to negative economic notes.

It is difficult to find new information not discussed by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s press conference which followed this meeting.  Please read Econintersect’s coverage Bernanke 2nd Press Conference: The Economy Is Temporarily Softer.

The most optimistic summary of the economy was:

In their discussion of the economic situation and outlook, meeting participants agreed that the economic information received during the intermeeting period indicated that the economic recovery was continuing at a moderate pace, though somewhat more slowly than they had anticipated at the time of the April meeting. Participants noted several transitory factors that were disruptions in the wake of the Japanese earthquake, the unusually severe weather in some parts of the United States, a drop in defense spending, and the effects of increases in oil and other commodity prices this year on household purchasing power and spending. Participants expected that the expansion would gain strength as the influence of these temporary factors waned.

No upside economic risks were listed, likely evaporating like QE2.  The minutes gave no expectations of the effects of ending QE2.  Other risks or problems stated:

Moreover, the recovery remained subject to some downside risks, such as the possibility of a more extended period of weak activity and declining prices in the housing sector, the chance of a larger than expected near-term fiscal tightening, and potential financial and economic spillovers if the situation in peripheral Europe were to deteriorate further.

…….

Several participants reported feedback from business contacts who were delaying hiring until the economic and regulatory outlook became more certain and who indicated that they expected to meet any near-term increase in the demand for their products without boosting employment; these participants noted the risk that such cautious attitudes toward hiring could slow the pace at which the unemployment rate normalized.

…….

Meeting participants also noted that an escalation of the fiscal difficulties in Greece and spreading concerns about other peripheral European countries could cause significant financial strains in the United States. It was pointed out that some U.S. money market mutual funds have significant exposures to financial institutions from core European countries, which, in turn, have substantial exposures to Greek sovereign debt. Participants were also concerned about the possible effect on financial markets of a failure to raise the statutory federal debt ceiling in a timely manner. While admitting that it was difficult to know what the precise effects of such a development would be, participants emphasized that even a short delay in the payment of principal or interest on the Treasury Department’s debt obligations would likely cause severe market disruptions and could also have a lasting effect on U.S. borrowing costs.

……..

Most participants expected that much of the rise in headline inflation this year would prove transitory and that inflation over the medium term would be subdued as long as commodity prices did not continue to rise rapidly and longer-term inflation expectations remained stable. Nevertheless, a number of participants judged the risks to the outlook for inflation as tilted to the upside.  Moreover, a few participants saw a continuation of the current stance of monetary policy as posing some upside risk to inflation expectations and actual inflation over time.

…….

Some participants noted that if economic growth remained too slow to make satisfactory progress toward reducing the unemployment rate and if inflation returned to relatively low levels after the effects of recent transitory shocks dissipated, it would be appropriate to provide additional monetary policy accommodation. Others, however, saw the recent configuration of slower growth and higher inflation as suggesting that there might be less slack in labor and product markets than had been thought. Several participants observed that the necessity of reallocating labor across sectors as the recovery proceeds, as well as the loss of skills caused by high levels of long-term unemployment and permanent separations, may have temporarily reduced the economy’s level of potential output. In that case, the withdrawal of monetary accommodation may need to begin sooner than currently anticipated in financial markets. A few participants expressed uncertainty about the efficacy of monetary policy in current circumstances but disagreed on the implications for future policy.

Sometimes, the news is what is not stated.  Lack of positive economic statements from the USA’s economic cheerleaders pretty much says it is their view that what we are currently seeing is as good as it is going to get for the near future.

Econintersect requests any readers differing observations for these meeting  minutes to feel free to leave your impressions as comments to this article.

source: Federal Reserve