Fed hawks back taper decision, one urges bolder action

(Reuters) - Two of the Federal Reserve's most outspoken policy hawks voiced support on Monday for the U.S. central bank's decision to start scaling back its bond-buying program, though one argued for bolder action. Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Richmond Federal Reserve, and Dallas Fed chief Richard Fisher, long-standing critics of the Fed's ultra-easy monetary policy, both said the taper was justified and pointed to recent encouraging signals from the U.S. economy. The Fed said on Wednesday it would trim the pace of its asset purchases by $10 billion, to $75 billion a month, saying the U.S. economy was strong enough to sustain the change though the recovery was far from complete. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, who is scheduled to step down on January 31, told reporters after the decision that this gradual rate of reductions would likely be maintained over the course of 2014.

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