As a former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, William Poole has a highly informed view of the Fed and the kinds of problems it has to grapple with. Right now, Poole says, the biggest challenge facing the U.S. economy is the “too-big-to-fail’ issue.” The government has taken on an “absolutely stunning increase in implicitly guaranteed assets,” Poole says. “How good the guarantee is, remains to be seen.” Read the rest of this entry »