ATLANTA, Jan 14 (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve’s
unconventional monetary stimulus has its limits, and could pose
threats to market functioning and financial stability if pushed
too far, Atlanta Fed Bank President Dennis Lockhart said on
Monday.

In another sign of growing reticence about the Fed’s
bond-buying quantitative easing program within the central bank,
Lockhart, seen as a policy centrist who tends to fall in line
with Chairman Ben Bernanke, said the open-ended approach to bond
buys does not mean there are no constraints on the policy.

ATLANTA (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve’s unconventional monetary stimulus has its limits, and could pose threats to market functioning and financial stability if pushed too far, Atlanta Fed Bank President Dennis Lockhart said on Monday.

In another sign of growing reticence about the Fed’s bond-buying quantitative easing program within the central bank, Lockhart, seen as a policy centrist who tends to fall in line with Chairman Ben Bernanke, said the open-ended approach to bond buys does not mean there are no constraints on the policy.

BALTIMORE (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve’s latest bond-buying stimulus plan threatens the central bank’s credibility and raises the risk of future inflation, Richmond Fed Bank President Jeffrey Lacker said on Friday.

Lacker, a vocal inflation hawk who dissented at every Fed policy meeting last year, held his ground on opposing the decision to purchase $85 billion per month in mortgage and Treasury bonds until the employment outlook improves.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve’s latest bond-buying stimulus plan threatens the central bank’s credibility and raises the risk of future inflation, Richmond Fed Bank President Jeffrey Lacker said on Friday.

Lacker, a vocal inflation hawk who dissented at every Fed policy meeting last year, held his ground on opposing the decision to purchase $85 billion per month in mortgage and Treasury bonds until the employment outlook improves.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Federal Reserve officials are increasingly concerned about the potential risks of the U.S. central bank’s asset purchases on financial markets, even if they look set to continue an open-ended stimulus program for now.

In a surprise to Wall Street, minutes from the Fed’s December policy meeting, published on Thursday, showed a growing reticence about further increases in the central bank’s $2.9 trillion balance sheet, which it expanded sharply in response to the financial crisis and recession of 2007-2009.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Federal Reserve officials are increasingly concerned about the potential risks of its asset purchases on financial markets, but look set to continue its open-ended stimulus program for now.

Minutes from the Fed’s December policy meeting showed a growing reticence about further increases in the central bank’s $2.9 trillion balance sheet, which it expanded sharply in response to the financial crisis and recession of 2007-2009.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve is expected to announce a fresh round of bond buying on Wednesday as part of its efforts to support a fragile economic recovery threatened by political wrangling over the government’s budget.

The central bank looks certain both to extend its purchases of mortgage-backed debt and replace another expiring stimulus program with a new bout of money creation.

BUENOS AIRES, Dec 11 (Reuters) – Argentina’s soy crushers
are running low on beans, causing plants to suspend operations
and worry about losing clients, as a December-January drought
has slowed supply of raw soybeans to a trickle.

For Argentina, the world’s top soyoil and soymeal exporter,
the next bean harvest is at least three months away. The
processing plants that line the Parana River at the Rosario
grain hub are set to end 2012 working at 68 percent capacity,
down from 75 percent the year before.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The contrast could not be sharper: Economists are all but certain the U.S. Federal Reserve will expand its monetary stimulus this week, but they have no clue how the fiscal battle in Congress will shake out.

U.S. central bankers look set to extend their monetary stimulus, known as Quantitative Easing, into the new year at a meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday. Analysts expect the Fed to continue buying $85 billion worth of securities per month.

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – An Argentine civil court handed a victory to Clarin media group on Thursday by granting a request by the conglomerate to delay application of a law calling for it to dismantle part of its broadcasting empire.

The order came one day ahead of a deadline by which Clarin was ordered to submit a plan for selling off dozens of operating licenses or risk having them auctioned by the state instead.