Free Republic

NEWS last week that the Federal Reserve would keep interest rates near zero until mid-2013 was welcomed by many investors, but the bleak message about the economy still came through loud and clear. The Fed has spent several years trying to kick-start the economy with low rates and other policies, with little success. Which raises this question: Will more of the same help now? Among the doubters is Thomas M. Hoenig, the soon-to-be former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Mr. Hoenig, at the helm of the Kansas City Fed for the last 20 years, has thought...

The morning Tom Hoenig, president of the Federal Reserve's regional bank here, announced that he would retire Oct. 1, newspapers nationwide reported that henceforth the Fed's chairmen will hold quarterly news conferences. This is probably both regrettable and inevitable. The Fed is called "independent" because it was created to insulate monetary policy from political pressures. But it was created by Congress, which can do what it wants with the Fed... --snip-- Is it, he is asked, mere coincidence that the Great Depression was (a) America's longest slump and (b) the one combated by the most government activism? Hoenig answers: "There...

Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Thomas Hoenig calls for Wall Street banks to be broken up A member of the US Federal Reserve has called for Wall Street's financial giants to be broken up to avoid another another crisis. By Andrew Trotman 11:07PM GMT 23 Feb 2011 “I am convinced that the existence of too-big-to-fail financial institutions poses the greatest risk to the US economy,” Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Thomas Hoenig said. “They must be broken up. We must make sure that large financial organizations are not in position to hold the US economy hostage. We must...

The Fed mutiny has arrived:

Posted on Thu, Dec. 02, 2010 Hoenig: ‘Too big to fail’ is still too big a threat THOMAS HOENIG COMMENTARY The world has experienced a severe financial crisis and economic recession. The Treasury and the Federal Reserve took actions that saved businesses and jobs and may very well have saved the economy itself from ruin. Still, the public seems ungrateful, expressing anger at these institutions that saved the day. Why? Americans are angry in part because they sense that the government was as much a cause of the crisis as its cure. They realize that more must be done to...

Fed Governor Calls For MASSIVE Rate Hikes Joe Weisenthal Jun. 3, 2010, 4:29 PM It's well known that Kansas City Fed Chief Thomas Hoenig is the one major voice of dissent on the Federal Reserve. He's called for a change to the dovish language, a rate hike in short order, while warning that cheap money would inevitably create another bubble. But he doesn't want to just stop at a 1% hike he said at a business lunch in Bartlesville Oklahoma today. Reuters: Thomas Hoenig, president of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank, has called for a modest increase in borrowing...

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial panic centered on Wall Street, it's easy to forget that this part of America has its own bitter history of wild speculation that ended in disaster. But Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Thomas Hoenig remembers the 1970s all too well. It was a lesson that still shapes his thinking about the role of the Fed's monetary policy in creating asset bubbles. Mr. Hoenig is [...] a voting member of the [FOMC], which sets U.S. monetary policy. In recent months he's been the committee's sole dissident on the Fed's promise to keep interest...

Tradecraft Politicians Use Bailout to Grab More Power By Jonathan Hoenig |Jonathan Hoenig Archive |Published: October 2, 2008 There was a time I wrote extensively about promising sectors and stocks. I looked at companies' new products, analyzed earnings and tracked moving averages of securities big and small. I miss those days.In recent weeks, those fundamentals have all but ceased to matter now that politicians are pulling the economy's strings. From restricting trade, such as through the short-sale ban that was just extended, to outright seizure, as was the case with AIG (AIG: 4.02*, +0.09, +2.29%), we are witnessing the biggest...