Fed's Lockhart Sees High Threshold for New Bond Buying

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart said the U.S. economy would need to deteriorate further to warrant additional asset purchases, or so-called quantitative easing, by the Fed.

“The bar for initiating another round of quantitative easing should remain high,” Lockhart said today in response to questions after a speech in Hong Kong. In order to support more bond buying, “I would have to see a serious deterioration of the economy,” such as “real layoffs, real job destruction” or the threat of falling prices, he said.