Fed's Fisher: Protectionism Won't Cure Economy's Ills

TOKYO — Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas president Richard Fisher said the world must not use protectionism to help move the economy out of recession.

As the world struggles to restore the financial market stability and economic growth, "there is one thing we cannot afford to do; we cannot resort to protectionism," he told a business seminar here yesterday after delivering a speech on the global financial crisis.

For sustained U.S. economic growth, he said, "the single most important thing is our high education quality …that's where our future lies."

He boasted that the U.S. university system helped America invent the Internet.

"The future lies in the companies we haven't thought about yet," he said, adding that nobody predicted the global success of the Internet search giant Google.

During a panel discussion, Fisher rejected the view that U.S. authorities' policy response to contain the housing market crash and subprime mortgage problems was "too little too late."

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