By Greg Robb
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The U.S. central bank is closer to slowing down its $85 billion-a-month asset purchase program in the wake of last Friday's unemployment data, said Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Fed Bank, on Monday. "With the unemployment rate having come down to 7.4%, I would say that the [Fed] is now closer to execution mode, pondering the right time to begin reducing its purchases, assuming there is no intervening reversal in economic momentum in coming months," Fisher said in a speech to state retirement administrators in Portland, Ore.. Fisher said he urged his colleagues at last week's Fed policy-committee meeting to "gird our loins to make our first move this fall." But he didn't specify whether he meant the policy committee's next meeting in September or at the following meeting in October. The Dallas Fed president is not a voting member this year. He has opposed the third round of asset purchases, also known as quantitative easing. In his speech, Fisher said the Fed does not seem to have achieved much with the trillions of dollars poured into the economy in terms of job creation.
