Federal Reserve ‘Should Taper Immediately,’ Bill Ackman Says

(Bloomberg) -- Bill Ackman said the Federal Reserve should slow down the pace of its asset purchases to support the U.S. economy ahead of a key meeting next week of policy makers.

“We think the Fed should taper immediately and begin raising rates as soon as possible,” the billionaire founder of Pershing Square Capital Management said in a series of tweets Friday. “We are continuing to dance while the music is playing, and it is time to turn down the music and settle down.”

Fed Chair Jerome Powell last week acknowledged that inflation was persisting longer than U.S. central bankers had expected and he flagged the risk that higher prices would continue.

The Federal Open Market Committee meets next week and is expected to announce scaling back asset purchases currently running at $120 billion a month. It would be a step toward exiting from monetary support rolled out to shield the economy last year from the effects of Covid-19.

“As we have previously disclosed, we have put our money where our mouth is in hedging our exposure to an upward move in rates, as we believe that a rise in rates could negatively impact our long-only equity portfolio,” Ackman said in another tweet Friday.

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