Williams Says Fed Should Shelve QE Tool as Rates Rise From Zero

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President John Williams, who has supported record stimulus, said the central bank should not rely on bond buying to buoy the economy once its benchmark interest rate returns to more normal levels.

“I don’t see LSAPs as being part of the FOMC’s toolkit once we leave the zero bound behind us,” Williams said in the text of prepared remarks given in Boston today, referring to large-scale asset purchases and the Federal Open Market Committee. “We’re still much less certain about their effects than we are about the effects of changes in the federal funds rate.”