Fed nears a tipping point on rate policy: Fisher (by Greg Robb)

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The Federal Reserve is nearing a tipping point at which it must begin to reverse its accommodative monetary policy in a timely way, said Dallas Fed president Richard Fisher on Friday. In a speech to the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, Fisher said no further accommodation by the Fed would be wise given the risk of higher inflation and the risk that investors will come to view the Fed's actions as monetizing the federal debt. "Just as we pressed on in doing our duty through extraordinary, exigent measures, we must now discipline ourselves to just as persistently normalize our operations in a timely way," said Fisher, a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee. Fisher said the Fed should consider curtailing what remains of its $600 billion bond-buying program known as QE2. That program is now scheduled to end in June.