Guest Fed Chair of the week...

After the disasterous PR concerning the recent discount rate rise and the confusion surrounding the Fed's putative exit strategy, they now wheel out Volcker to take away the keys from the children on Constitution Avenue, apologize for their adolescent immaturity and tell us all everything is under control.

March 6 (Bloomberg) -- White House adviser Paul Volcker said it’s too soon for U.S. policy makers to withdraw the stimulus measures and interest-rate cuts used to fight the worst slump since the Great Depression.

“This is not the time to take aggressive tightening action, either fiscally or monetary-wise,” said Volcker in an interview in Berlin today, pointing to “high” unemployment. “So I think we have to, as best as we can, maintain the expectation that it will be taken care of in a timely way.”

The Federal Reserve and the Treasury are trying to withdraw the emergency measures introduced during the financial crisis without causing a relapse in the economy. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said last week the U.S. is in a “nascent” recovery that still requires keeping interest rates near zero “for an extended period” to spur demand once stimulus stimulus wanes.