Fed official's baseball analogy throws economists a curve

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2005

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Comments from a Federal Reserve official -- using a baseball analogy suggesting the rate-hiking phase may be near an end -- have thrown economists and financial markets for a curve.

Markets have been buzzing over the remarks, which highlight the "conundrum" of unusually low interest rates on the bond market along with signs of an expanding economy.

Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, said in an interview with CNBC television: "We're clearly in the eighth inning of a tightening cycle ... We have the ninth inning coming up at the end of June."

"I think there's room to tighten a little bit further, and then we'll see," Fisher said. "We may have to go into extra innings in the contest against inflation."

The...