All Clear at the Fed

Minutes of the Fed’s Open Market Committee meeting last month, released today, show that the Fed’s asset purchase program aroused disagreement. Some thought it needed to be expanded; one thought it needed to be reduced. The decision was to wait and see.

Inflation, we learn, may fall too far. Or perhaps it will rise too much:

Some noted the risk that, over the next couple of years, inflation could edge further below the rates they judged most consistent with the Federal Reserve’s dual mandate for maximum employment and price stability; others saw inflation risks as tilted toward the upside in the medium term.

They also see evidence that job growth will be very slow, but it might be faster.

But there was one unanimous conclusion:

All agreed that the path of short-term rates going forward would depend on the evolution of the economic outlook.

http://norris.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/06/all-clear-at-the-fed/