--- title: 4 Takeaways from the Fed's Big Meeting description: This afternoon, the Federal Reserve released minutes from its mid-June meeting, providing a slightly more detailed picture of what chair Janet Yellen and her colleagues… authors: - name: Jacob Davidson url: https://money.com/author/jacob-davidson/ at_money_since: 2014 articles: 106 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit Cards - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/JakeD former_staff: true - name: Pat Regnier url: https://money.com/author/pat-regnier/ at_money_since: 2009 articles: 53 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Education - Housing - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Mortgages - Retirement - Taxes social: - https://x.com/PatRegnier former_staff: true - name: Susie Poppick url: https://money.com/author/susie-poppick/ at_money_since: 2013 articles: 117 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/susiepoppick former_staff: true published: '2014-07-09T19:18:08.000Z' modified: '2024-04-16T03:58:11.000Z' section: Economy and Politics tags: - Economy - Fed - Fed minutes - Federal Reserve - FOMC - inflation - interest rates - Janet Yellen - QE - Quantitative Easing - Yellen word_count: 746 canonical: https://money.com/4-takeaways-from-the-feds-big-meeting/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen arrives for a news conference at the Federal Reserve in Washington](https://img.money.com/2014/07/140709_inv_3mintakeawaysfed_1.jpg?crop=0px%2C70px%2C3583px%2C2015px&quality=85) *Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen* This afternoon, the Federal Reserve released minutes from its mid-June meeting, providing a slightly more detailed picture of what chair Janet Yellen and her colleagues are thinking about the future of interest rates and monetary policy. The June meeting itself had been a [big shrug](https://money.com/fed-economy-is-doing-better-but-not-enough-to-get-excited-or-worried-about/): The economy was getting better but not quickly enough to justify raising short-term interest rates; the Fed also said it would continue slowly tapering "quantitative easing," the massive program of bond buying that's meant to ease credit and stoke economic growth. But here are three new things we've learned from the minutes. **1) Look for "quantitative easing" to end in October** We already kind of knew this, since the Fed has been reducing its purchases as a steady rate, but the minutes fill in a detail: > Some committee members had been asked by members of the public whether, if tapering in the pace of purchases continues as expected, the final reduction would come in a single $15 billion per month reduction or in a $10 billion reduction followed by a $5 billion reduction. Most participants viewed this as a technical issue with no substantive macroeconomic consequences… But: > … participants generally agreed ... it would be appropriate to complete asset purchases with a $15 billion reduction in the pace of purchases in order to avoid having the small, remaining level of purchases receive undue focus among investors. If the economy progresses about as the Committee expects, warranting reductions in the pace of purchases at each upcoming meeting, this final reduction would occur following the October meeting. Bear in mind that this just means the Fed will stop *buying* bonds. It will still own over $4 trillion worth of them. **2) The Fed is divided about how to read inflation data** In a press conference after the meeting, Yellen said that although inflation seemed to be picking up a bit, the numbers were too "noisy" to conclude that inflation would go above the Fed's 2% target for long. The minutes of the meeting suggest that the other Fed governors and regional Fed presidents are divided on this. Some are worried that inflation is still far too low, indicating an economy that's still too slack. And it looks like the recent strong jobs numbers, released after the meeting, which brought unemployment down to 6.1%, won't change the minds of the inflation doves. > Some participants expressed concern about the persistence of below-trend inflation, and a couple of them suggested that the Committee may need to allow the unemployment rate to move below its longer-run normal level for a time in order keep inflation expectations anchored and return inflation to its 2 percent target, though one participant emphasized the risks of doing so. But there's still a vocal hawk team. Although price increases are very low, their main concern is that the Fed won't be able to react fast enough when the economy turns. > … other participants expressed concern that economic growth over the medium run might be faster than currently expected or that the rate of growth of potential output might be lower than currently expected, calling for a more rapid move to begin raising the federal funds rate in order to avoid significantly overshooting the Committee's unemployment and inflation objectives. **3) The Fed is worried that it's being taken for granted.** > ...participants also discussed whether some recent trends in financial markets might suggest that investors were not appropriately taking account of risks in their investment decisions… \[and\] not factoring in sufficient uncertainty about the path of the economy and monetary policy. What's the problem with that? There's always concern that easy policy will stoke an asset bubble. But Yellen has said that while she's keeping this on her radar, it's not a major concern yet. One good reason to think so: The housing market, the source of the really dangerous bubbles, is hardly frothy. > Despite attractive mortgage rates, housing demand was seen as being damped by such factors as restrictive credit conditions, particularly for households with low credit scores; high down payments; or low demand among younger homebuyers, due in part to the burden of student loan debt. **4) The labor market still looks weaker than it should be.** Although unemployment is down, some participants in the Fed meeting feel that many workers are still struggling to find work—they note that many workers have dropped out of the labor force altogether—and those with jobs still aren't in a strong position to demand higher wages. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/4-takeaways-from-the-feds-big-meeting/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Economy and Politics", "item": "https://money.com/economy-and-politics/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Federal Reserve", "item": "https://money.com/federal-reserve/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "4 Takeaways from the Fed's Big Meeting" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/4-takeaways-from-the-feds-big-meeting/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/4-takeaways-from-the-feds-big-meeting/", "name": "4 Takeaways from the Fed's Big Meeting", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2014-07-09T19:18:08.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/4-takeaways-from-the-feds-big-meeting/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/4-takeaways-from-the-feds-big-meeting/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-16T03:58:11.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "4 Takeaways from the Fed's Big Meeting", "articleSection": "Economy and Politics", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2014/07/140709_inv_3mintakeawaysfed_1.jpg?crop=0px%2C70px%2C3583px%2C2015px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "140709_INV_3MinTakeawaysFed_1" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jacob Davidson", "url": "https://money.com/author/jacob-davidson/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/jacob-davidson/#author", "image": "https://money.com/content.money.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/jake-davidson-2.jpg?crop=35px%2C18px%2C872px%2C872px&resize=640%2C640&quality=85&strip&ssl=1", "email": "jake.davidson@yoh.timeinc.com", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/JakeD" ] }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Pat Regnier", "url": "https://money.com/author/pat-regnier/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/pat-regnier/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/05/14-05-21_bio_author_reginier.jpg?quality=85&w=190&h=190&crop=1", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/PatRegnier" ] }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Susie Poppick", "url": "https://money.com/author/susie-poppick/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/susie-poppick/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/05/14-05-21_bio_author_poppick.jpg?quality=85&w=190&h=190&crop=1", "email": "susie_poppick@moneymail.com", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/susiepoppick" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2014-07-09T19:18:08.000Z", "description": "This afternoon, the Federal Reserve released minutes from its mid-June meeting, providing a slightly more detailed picture of what chair Janet Yellen and her colleagues…", "abstract": "This afternoon, the Federal Reserve released minutes from its mid-June meeting, providing a slightly more detailed picture of what chair Janet Yellen and her colleagues…", "@id": "https://money.com/4-takeaways-from-the-feds-big-meeting/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-16T03:58:11.000Z", "wordCount": 746, "keywords": [ "Economy", "Fed", "Fed minutes", "Federal Reserve", "FOMC", "inflation", "interest rates", "Janet Yellen", "QE", "Quantitative Easing", "Yellen" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Political economy", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_economy" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Federal Reserve", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve" ] } ] } ] } ```