Monday, 27 Aug 2012 02:30 PM

By Dan Weil

As the Federal Reserve contemplates a third round of quantitative easing (QE3), the clear consensus among investment strategists and economists is that it would be a bad idea.

A CNNMoney poll shows that 93 percent of strategists think the Fed should refrain from easing at its Sept. 12-13 meeting, and 77 percent of economists feel the same way.

Additional accommodation wouldn’t do anything to help the economy, they say.
"Nobody likes it when the punch bowl is taken away, but the party has gone on too long," Doug Cote, chief market strategist at ING Investment Management, told CNNMoney. "It's time to get back to a normal economic recovery."

Economists agree that each bout of Fed easing over the past three years has had less effect than the round before.

And some worry that QE3 would ignite inflation.

"I would love for [Fed Chairman] Ben Bernanke to walk into a Wal-Mart and tell a person living paycheck to paycheck that high inflation will be good for them," Peter Boockvar, an equity strategist at Miller Tabak, told CNNMoney.

There are plenty of different views about the Fed. Financial writer John Cassidy faults the central bank for failing to ease further already.

“Rather than getting out ahead of events, which is essential given that there's always a lag between action and results, the Fed appears paralyzed,” Cassidy wrote in Fortune.