Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Thomas Hoenig said the U.S. economy is strengthening and that dissent by policy makers is essential to the success of the central bank. “I am increasingly confident that the recovery is both sustainable and likely to gain strength over the next several quarters,” Hoenig said today in the text of remarks for a speech in Kansas City, Missouri. Annual real gross domestic product will probably increase by 3.5 percent to 4 percent for the next couple of years, he said. Hoenig reiterated his opposition to current Fed policy, saying the central bank has “maintained an emergency monetary policy stance in a recovering economy and has continued to ease into the recovery.” The actions “risk creating a new set of imbalances, or bubbles,” said Hoenig, the Fed’s longest-serving policy maker.