02 Sep.

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher said Wednesday the recovery of the U.S. economy “will take quite some time,” and that improved regulatory and fiscal policies are needed in order to help the process.

“We need to restore confidence,” he told reporters after giving a speech before the Greater Houston Partnership. “We are not the only one in the pilot house driving this ship, it has to be complemented…with fiscal and regulatory” policies that encourage business owners. He added that any possible new stimulus program should focus on generating jobs.

Fisher, who isn’t a voting member of the interest-rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee this year but will be a voting member in 2011, said that an improved regulatory and fiscal environment should help to activate the economy. Business owners will accept policies they are not “happy” with because at least they will be more certain about the rules, he said.

The U.S. economic recovery, although slow, can’t be compared with the long recession Japan experienced in recent years because both economies are different and governments have reacted in different ways to the same problems. Unlike the U.S., Japan didn’t make substantial reforms to its bank system and it also raised taxes, Fisher said earlier, answering questions from the audience.