Could take 4-5 years to bring down unemployment: Fed's Pinalto

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Reuters:

(Reuters) - The U.S. economic recovery is "frustratingly slow" and it could take four to five years to ratchet the unemployment rate down to about 6 percent, from more than 8 percent now, a top U.S. Federal Reserve official said on Tuesday.

The recovery is held back by "a number of headwinds" including housing and Europe, but monetary policy is now appropriately positioned to eventually achieve this "maximum employment" level, said Cleveland Fed President Sandra Pianalto.

"We do not have a good deal of concrete history for monetary policy to fit our current circumstances, but I am confident the Federal Reserve is making the most of its tools to move the economy in the right direction," the Fed official said at an economic development meeting in Westfield Center, Ohio.

Pianalto, a voter this year on the Fed's policy-setting panel, is a moderate dove in line with Chairman Ben Bernanke's core of policymakers who have taken aggressive action to bring down unemployment, which stands at 8.3 percent and was above 9 percent last year.

The U.S. central bank in late 2008 slashed interest rates to near zero and has since bought $2.3 trillion in long-term securities in an unprecedented drive to spur growth and revive the economy after the worst recession in decades.

Despite recent signs the recovery is gaining traction, the overall recovery has been slow, leading to debate both within and without the Fed over the need for additional asset purchases, including possibly mortgage-based bonds.

Pianalto did not tip her hand on that particular debate.

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From an "Unexpected" to a "Frustrating" economy.

[Valin]

Did something happen and we have been transported back in time to 1979? Because I seem to recall reading this same thing then.

[logicnreason]

Under the current regime and its rino supporters, this is an understatement. Most likely - given the current federal setup and direction, the US will NEVER have less than 8% true, factual "unemployment".

 

Only by eliminating the stain, his regime, and its rino supporters....then getting federal govt out of our lives and out from in front of American businesses, will the true unemployment picture change for the better.