WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. growth is being held back by uncertainty over the country’s tax code and future government spending, a senior Federal Reserve official said on Wednesday, warning that businesses would not boost hiring until these issues were resolved.

Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher said a year-end ‘fiscal cliff’ of tax hikes and government spending cuts was deterring U.S. businesses from deploying the ample cash they have at hand to invest and add to payrolls.

WASHINGTON, Oct 10 (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve should
adopt a collective economic forecast to help the public
understand its thinking better, a senior official at the U.S.
central bank said on Wednesday, pointing to a likely next step
in the Fed’s evolving communication strategy.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Narayana
Kocherlakota, who proposed last month that the Fed hold interest
rates near to zero until U.S. unemployment was back under 5.5
percent, also said his proposal required a collective forecast.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States will continue to notch modest growth of around 2 percent growth this year and next but must avoid a year-end ‘fiscal cliff’ of tax hikes and spending cuts that would tip it back into recession, the IMF said on Monday.

In a semi-annual checkup on the health of the world economy, the International Monetary Fund also said Canada would grow by roughly the same rate as its southern neighbor, and must take care to ensure that its housing boom does not turn into a bust.

MEMPHIS (Reuters) – The United States faces a problem of too much debt, but any suggestion that this burden can be eased by allowing inflation to rise will just result in higher borrowing costs in the future, a senior Federal Reserve official said on Thursday.

James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, said that inflation was sometimes seen as a way to “partially default” on existing debts, because it lowers the amount the borrower repays in real, inflation-adjusted terms.

By Alister Bull and Ben Berkowitz

(Reuters) – The Federal Reserve on Friday named the banks that borrowed at its discount window during the third quarter of 2010, but the period showed very low levels of activity and none of the biggest Wall Street firms had turned to the facility for help.

Some of the decline in discount window borrowing may have reflected banks steering clear because they knew their actions would be disclosed, albeit with a two-year lag, once the Dodd-Frank financial reform law was passed.

LOUIS (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve should have waited for clearer signs of a flagging economy before launching its new bond-buying program, the head of the St. Louis regional Fed bank said on Tuesday, adding that he would have voted against it.

James Bullard, president of the St. Louis Fed, also told Reuters that he is sufficiently concerned about the risk of future inflation that he backs a controversial proposal by congressional Republicans for the Fed to return to having only a single mandate: preventing inflation.

LOUIS (Reuters) – St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard on Tuesday said he would not have voted in favor of the bond-buying program the U.S. central bank launched last week.

Bullard, who does not have a vote on the Fed’s policy-setting committee this year but will in 2013, said recent U.S. economic data has not convinced him that the program was necessary.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve launched another aggressive stimulus program on Thursday, saying it would pump $40 billion into the U.S. economy until it saw a sustained upturn in the weak jobs market.

The central bank’s decision to tie its controversial bond buying directly to economic conditions was an unprecedented step that marked a big escalation in its efforts to drive U.S. unemployment lower. Stock prices jumped, while gold hit a six-month high as investors braced for higher inflation.

WASHINGTON, Sept 13 (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve
launched another aggressive stimulus program on Thursday, saying
it will buy $40 billion of mortgage-backed debt per month until
the outlook for jobs improves substantially as long as inflation
remains contained.

In an unprecedented step, the Fed’s policymaking panel
escalated its effort to drive U.S. unemployment lower by tying
its unconventional bond buying directly to economic conditions,
a move that immediately sparked controversy among its critics.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve launched another aggressive stimulus program on Thursday, saying it will buy $40 billion of mortgage debt per month and continue to purchase assets until the outlook for jobs improves substantially.

In a significant shift in the direction of U.S. monetary policy, the Fed has tied its unconventional bond buying directly to economic conditions, a move that is likely to be controversial among central bank critics.