Fed May Not Increase Rates Until 2012, Bullard Say

Bloomberg reports:

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said past experience suggests policy makers may not start to raise interest rates until early 2012, while concern borrowing costs have stayed “too low for too long” may prompt an earlier move.

“If you look at the last two recessions, in each case the FOMC waited two and a half to three years before we started our tightening campaign,” Bullard said today in a speech in St. Louis. “If we took that as a benchmark, that would put us in the first half of 2012.”