Ford School Dean Susan M. Collins was quoted about the 2013 Federal Reserve Jackson Hole Symposium on the central bank's bond-buying policy. With regard to speculation about when a tapering of assets purchases might occur, Collins said:
I don't think September is a done deal. What they've said very clearly is that this is going to be data-based. Yes they do need to balance the two risks. I think that this recovery is fragile enough – maybe it looks less fragile when you compare what's happening in other parts of the world, but it's still pretty fragile.
And I have to say under some scenarios, September could be the worst time. Because depending on what happens when Congress comes back, that uncertainty and the debt debate could mean rising premiums and we see higher interest rates already. Do we really want to push further ahead of that?
Collins' comments were reported by the Wall Street Journal's Marketwatch and a Reuters story was picked up by a number of other media outlets, including MSN and the blog MacroScope.
Watch Collins discuss the timeliness of this year's Jackson Hole theme, "Unconventional Monetary Policy in a Global Environment," in the latest Policy Points video.