FRANKFURT, Germany - March 22, 2011 - The United States is on a fiscal path towards insolvency and policymakers are at a "tipping point," a Federal Reserve official said on Tuesday.

"If we continue down the path on which the fiscal authorities (have) put us, we will become insolvent; the (only) question is when," Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher said in a question and answer session after delivering a speech at the University of Frankfurt.

"The short-term negotiations are very important, I look at this as a tipping point," said Fisher.

But he also said he was confident in the Amerikans’ ability to make the right decisions and said the country would avoid insolvency.

"I think we are at the beginning of the process and it's going to be very painful," he added.