WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve should be careful in adding to the set of crisis programs it has already approved in order to keep some “firepower” in case the fight against the coronavirus pandemic takes an unexpected turn for the worse, St. Louis Federal Reserve president James Bullard said on Friday.
The Treasury still has more than $200 billion it could use to help the Fed set up programs to provide far more than that in credit to companies or local governments. But “my preference would be to not just open facilities to open them, but to a purpose that is clearly identified,” Bullard said in comments to journalists. “When you are in a crisis like this you get periods of relative calm and then new developments come along.”
(Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
