MNI POLICY: Fiscal Help Best For Next 6 Months-Fed's Williams

New York Fed President John Williams said Tuesday the best tool to get through the next six months is fiscal policy even while the Fed could reopen emergency lending facilities or adjust asset purchases.

"Fiscal policy is really the most powerful tool right now" and "that's the thing that would be most effective at getting us through the next six months," Williams said.

The Fed can, if it decides it would be appropriate, restart emergency lending programs the Trump Treasury is shutting down. The Fed is also buying Treasuries across the curve and as the economy evolves "we can adapt and modify these programs," he said, adding that the asset purchases could be linked "more clearly" to the Fed's dual mandate goals.

The economy is "not at full strength," Williams said in the WSJ event, but it "will continue to see good growth next next year" even as "uncertainty is still the defining feature."