To hear Wall Street pros tell it, Stanley Fischer hasn’t lived up to his reputation as an economic heavyweight in his first year at the Federal Reserve. Don’t believe it.
Away from the spotlight, the Fed vice chairman has played a key role in fashioning policy, those in the know say. He has nudged the central bank away from providing explicit guidance on its interest-rate intentions and elevated its efforts to spot financial trouble spots in the U.S. and global economies.
“He has moved the needle,” said International Monetary Fund chief economist Olivier Blanchard, a longtime confidant who speaks with Fischer frequently.
The picture that insiders paint of Fischer as a trusted adviser to Chair Janet Yellen contrasts with the public perception. Fed watchers don’t view his utterances as providing a lodestar on where rates are headed. And Wall Street executives have voiced disappointment that he hasn’t curbed the regulatory zeal of Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo.
Fischer’s defenders say such criticism misses the point. His job is to be “one of the steady hands on the tiller during a time of great uncertainty” for the economy, not to act as a foil to Tarullo or Yellen, said Timothy Adams, president of the Washington-based Institute of International Finance, which represents about 500 global financial institutions.
