Is the Fed making a mistake by focusing more on the economy than on inflation?
CNBC’s Cash Flow with Amanda Drury

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Is the Fed making a mistake by focusing more on the economy than on inflation?

Response of Ken Barker from Q-Group: “Yes. The Fed is trashing the dollar and making it very tough for savers… “Helicopter” Ben may yet surpass… “Bubbles” Greenspan in monetary irresponsibility.

Host: Well let’s now get to Todd Everts. He is President and CEO at Wall Street Global. Todd, great to have you with us today. What is your response to this question of the day whether or not the Fed should be focusing more on the inflation as opposed to the downside risks to the economy which seems to be at the moment?

Todd: Well I think Ken hit a couple of points quite directly and that is the fact that economic stimulus has not been proven as a way to prop up the US economy rather when you take actionable measures that provide manufacturers to increase their spending, hire more people, increase their output, that was what will drive the consumer to come back in to the store. Simply handing the consumer a $900, $1200 rebate in the form of a check or in the form of a tax rebate next year isn’t gonna drive the economy. It’s just noise and it’s unfortunate that we’re getting so much noise obviously during a year of politics up before the election because it’s really not gonna change things and that’s what the US needs.

Host: Sure and the government has to be seen to be doing something, doesn’t it? Otherwise it could be accused of just being a lame duck. So you don’t reckon the fiscal stimulus packages going to have much impact, it’s not gonna basically be working its way into the economy into the second half… Anyway, what about more Fed cuts…is that gonna help by making it easy for small businesses for example to get a loan?

Todd: These Fed cuts are gonna help the businesses but it’s not gonna drive the economy. The 20th century was about the United States but the 21st century is really gonna be about emerging markets and obviously here we are in Asia. The US and the US spender doesn’t understand world markets...they don’t travel like Europeans do or even like Asians are starting to do. They don’t understand that world markets have changed and the US has not adapted over the last 20 years to that change. And so virtually every form of outsourcing is moving its way to India, the Philippines, China…manufacturing is continuing to increase…these “Bubbles” in gyrations in the markets locally here in Hong Kong and across Asia are really temporary. They’re gonna have an upward trend while the US and the dollar’s gonna have a downward trend.

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