Meow!

CBS reports of an emerging cat fight at the Fed: Fault lines emerge at Fed.

In a speech on Tuesday, Philadelphia Fed Bank president Charles Plosser publicly took issue with positions advocated by Fed chief Ben Bernanke.

In a breathtaking innovation in monetary policy, the Bernanke Fed since the fall has not only expanded its balance sheet from $900 billion to well over $2 trillion in its efforts to restore the credit markets to health but has stopped offsetting the expanding bank reserves.

On the other hand, Plosser urged the Fed to "proceed with caution" with the new policy. Others outside the Fed are much more strident and want plans in place immediately to reverse it. They believe an inflation storm is already in train.

"It is a huge disagreement," said Robert Brusca, chief economist at FAO Economics.

While the Fed chairman has made it a practice to run a more democratic central bank, the disagreements come at a crucial time when the Fed is striving to appear on top of the current financial market crisis and steep recession.

Bernanke argued that focusing on the size of the balance sheet misses the point, arguing the Fed's various asset purchase programs are not easily summarized in a single number.

But Plosser said that the growth of the Fed's balance sheet was a key metric.
"It is not appropriate to ignore quantitative metrics in this new policy environment," Plosser said.

Fed officials who pay attention to the money supply believe that the Fed's current policy of printing money never ends well and the danger of inflation is very high. They believe the Fed must withdraw the stimulus before there is any sign of inflation or it is too late.