Former Fed Economist Available to Comment on Yellen’s Announcement, Assessment of U.S. Economy

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Tim Yeager, finance professor at the University of Arkansas and former economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, is available to comment on Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen’s announcement Tuesday that the U.S. economy is strengthening slowly and that the Fed will continue to retreat from it stimulus efforts.

Yeager said he agrees with Yellen’s generally optimistic assessment and the Fed’s plan to step back from its stimulus campaign. In recent years, to stimulate the economy, the Fed has purchased more than $4 trillion in Treasury and mortgage-backed securities to put direct pressure on long-term interest rates. While the benefits from this quantitative easing are small, Yeager says, so are the costs.

Yeager served as an economist and assistant vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis from 1998-2005. His academic research has focused on government-sponsored enterprises such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He has investigated the trend toward universal banking and conducted the first empirical study of the effect of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which removed barriers separating commercial banking from investment banking, merchant banking and insurance underwriting.

Throughout the financial crisis and recession, Yeager has been interviewed extensively and used as a source by many publications, including Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Forbes and USAToday.

CONTACTS: Tim Yeager, associate professor, financeSam M. Walton College of Business479-575-4246, [email protected], http://waltoncollege.uark.edu/directory.asp?id=tyeager

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