IN BRIEF (Page 17)

Fisher's warning

The US economy is grim, and the Federal Reserve is "duty bound to apply every tool" to clean up the financial system and clear a path for a return to sustainable growth, Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Fed, said yesterday.

"The men and women who operate our businesses and create and sustain employment have assumed a defensive crouch," Fisher said in remarks prepared for a speech to a forum sponsored by the Japan Center for Economic Research in Tokyo. "The result is an American economy in statis."