Fed has done "as much as it can": Fed's Hoenig

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By Mark Felsenthal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Kansas City Federal Reserve President Thomas Hoenig said on Monday the U.S. central bank has done what it can to buffer the economy through a downturn, and a painful process of readjustment is likely ahead.

"The Fed has done about as much as it can do," he said in an interview on PBS's Nightly Business Report. Interest rates are already extremely low, he noted, according to a transcript of the program.

"We might put it out there, but banks are not able to, given their own capital constraints, able to lend as aggressively," he added.

Hoenig said he was surprised at how quickly economic activity has slowed, but that a sharp reversal of consumption was clearly a key development.

"The consumer factor was a major part of the strong slowdown and the actual entering into the recession," he said.

The Fed has this year cut interest rates to 1 percent from 4.25 percent, offered hundreds of billions of dollars in loans to financial institutions and helped bail out major firms as part of extraordinary efforts to cushion the economy.

Hoenig, who is not a voting member of the Fed's interest rate-setting committee this year or next, said there are likely tough times ahead as financial institutions and households pare debt.

"Part of it is working through the deleveraging," he said. "I don't know of any painless way to rebalance your economy, you have to go through this adjustment, and we will get through it, but it's not going to be without consequence," he added.

Hoenig told a banking audience earlier in the day that authorities should find ways beyond monetary policy to resolve future financial crises.

"Going forward, it will be essential that our financial system have a wider range of policy and market-based options to resolve crises, with less reliance being placed on monetary policy," he said in remarks to a private Institute of International Bankers conference on financial regulation in New York.

Hoenig said that "an enormous burden" has been placed on monetary policy to resolve the crisis.

"Monetary policy is not designed to address many of the underlying factors, particularly when the problems extend beyond liquidity and raise issues of solvency and informational shortcomings," he said.

Hoenig said policy-makers must set clearer rules for financial institutions, and establish a better crisis management framework. Authorities must also consider how to take away the temporary assistance programs they have established, he said.

U.S. banking and financial regulators have been criticized for not acting quickly enough to curtail the risky lending and financial activities that caused the surge in mortgage delinquencies that triggered the financial crisis. U.S. lawmakers are expected to tackle a broad overhaul of financial regulation and oversight when President-elect Barack Obama takes office in January.

He said he favors limiting the scope of the government's safety net.

"I am especially concerned that we could put ourselves in the position of mixing banking and commercial activities if we were to extend financial assistance to firms conducting a wide range of activities," he said.

Hoenig also expressed concern about the expansion of the Fed's lending role during the current turmoil.

"I would argue for at least drawing a sharp line between banking and commerce, with our discount window only used to fund institutions and markets that play a strictly financial role, he said.

(Reporting by Mark Felsenthal; editing by Gary Crosse)

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