Hijjah 17, 1431 / Nov. 23, 2010, SPA -- The U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) would have undertaken its latest $600 billion Treasury debt purchasing program even if its only responsibility was to maintain price stability, a top official said on Monday. Some Republican lawmakers have recently called for a rewrite of the Fed's mandate, under which the Fed has the two goals of price stability and maximum employment. Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota said the debate is "interesting," but removing the Fed's employment mandate would have had no impact on its decision to undertake quantitative easing, in which the Fed would buy $600 billion in long-term Treasuries by the middle of next year at the pace of $75 billion a month. Kocherlakota also said that U.S. inflation is so low that the central bank would have eventually undertaken quantitative easing in an effort to keep interest rates low and supply money for the slow economy.
