Richard Fisher, the president of the Dallas Fed, tells off the markets and the media in a speech today for being presumptuous about what the Fed has decided.

“I am afraid that despite recent speculation in the press and among market pundits, we did little to settle the debate as to whether the Committee might actually engage in further monetary accommodation, or what has become known in the parlance of Wall Street as “QE2,” a second round of quantitative easing. It would be marked by an expansion of our balance sheet beyond its current footings of $2.3 trillion through the purchase of additional Treasuries or other securities. To be sure, some in the marketplace―including those with the most to gain financially―read the tea leaves of the statement as indicating a bias toward further asset purchases, executed either in small increments or in a “shock-and-awe” format entailing large buy-ins, leaving open only the question of when.”

I’m one of the naughty boys in the media. But Mr Fisher has been a bit naughty, too, because he shouldn’t be telling us about the last FOMC meeting before publication of the minutes. Read more