Fed's Bullard sees risk of lengthy policy pause (by Greg Robb)

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The main risk for Federal Reserve policymakers at the moment is holding monetary policy too easy for too long, a senior Fed official said Wednesday. James Bullard, the president of the St. Louis Fed, said over-committing to the ultra-easy policy stance could reignite "a 1970s-type experience globally" that included four recessions in 13 years along with double-digit inflation and double-digit unemployment. "The lesson was clear: do not let the inflation genie out of the bottle," Bullard said in a speech to a business group in Louisville, Ky. At the moment, the Fed is "on pause" because of better-than-expected data over the past nine months and an increase in inflation over the past year-and-a-half, he said. The best way to enhance the Fed's communication with the market may be to replicate the Bank of England's quarterly inflation report, Bullard said. The latest BOE report consists of 56 pages of texts and charts about the economic outlook.