Holding Interest Rates at 2% Is "The Right Thing to Do", said Fisher

The Federal Reserve's Fisher, who had been advocating rate hikes earlier in the summer, backed away from supporting one at the last meeting. In a speech in New York, the President of Dallas Federal Reserve commented that the case for a rate rise seemed both less urgent and potentially disruptive (at the meeting on September 16) given the clear and present danger of an imploding financial system and the considerable downside risks to the economy should that implosion occur.

Fisher added that holding rates at 2% was the "right thing to do" given the market turmoil, but said he was still concerned with the low level of the Federal Reserve's benchmark rate.