A "significant majority" of the Federal Open Market Committee approves the current monetary stance, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke told the House Financial Services Committee in response to a question.
"On the disagreements on the committee, we have our debates more or less in public, and I hope you would take some comfort from the fact that a wide range of views and points of view are represented on the committee, and we do discuss all these issues. Of course the significant majority of the committee is supportive of the policies that we are taking."
While acknowledging "predicting the future is always dangerous," Bernanke noted the Fed has "the tools … to unwind the balance sheet, and we have a variety of different tools including, not just selling assets, but other tools such as raising the interest rate we pay on excess reserves and the use of other draining tools, which based on the experience of other central banks would be effective in allowing us to unwind that policy. Of course, doing it at the exact right moment is always difficult."
