MNI TRANSCRIPT: Powell: Operating Under Congressional Guidance

     WASHINGTON (MNI) - The following is the portion of a transcript from

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's press conference Wednesday:

     Q: Mr. Chairman, with CNBC, I've got two questions. Why aren't you

announcing or conducting a specific quantitative easing program, and maybe you

can explain what the context is now of the purchases that will be made and the

amounts that are to come. The second question I have is, is the Federal Reserve

really taking enough risk to help households and businesses here in that you

just said that the programs that are out there may be best for those who are

able to repay loans, but don't you have a series of programs essentially lending

only those able to repay which is essentially helping those who may need it the

least? Thank you.

     A: Let me say again in terms of asset purchases and other measures, we do

think our policy stance is appropriate now. We have had discussions over time

and done thinking about what we might do in the future. For now our policy

stance is appropriate. We are not going to change it now. We are waiting to see

more from the economy. There are a range of potential paths the economy could be

on. I think as the time approaches for, then we will address your first question

which is about asset purchases. But that is not something we are doing today.

It's something that we have talked about, and for now, we like our current

policy stance. In terms of risk, we operate under the laws that congress passes.

There are a number of aspects under section 13.3 and you can see they have

permitted us to move quickly, and move into areas where we have never been

before and do so quite aggressively. I think we are going places and providing

help in places where we never have, and I'm glad that we are. I think it's

appropriate that we are. Nonetheless these are lending powers, and if you read

section 13.3 of the Federal Reserve act, I know you have, it does require that

we be secured to our satisfaction, and we can't lend insolvent companies. It's

clear these are lending powers. We are ultimately bound to implement the laws

that congress gives us. We do not make grants, we can't make grants. The reason

I raise that in my remarks is that I want to be clear on that. We can do what we

can do, and we will do it to the absolute limit of those powers. We will keep at

it. I want people to know that we will be at it with legal authorities that we

have until we get through this thing. We will keep using our authorities. But

there are authorities that we don't have, and there may be a need for those

authorities to be used as well as ours.

--MNI Washington Bureau; +1 202 371 2121; email: evan.ryser@marketnews.com

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