FED Minutes

I also should have put out my typical warning that there's always a knee jerk reaction to the FAD.

As far as the minutes, people see what they want. One site that has been predicting QE3 the entire year of course put out headlines about QE3 and put their spin to support what they have been saying is going to happen at every meeting so fr this year, but hasn't.

What the minutes said, read for yourself.

Here's what the QE3 crowd latched onto:

• SOME FED OFFICIALS SOUGHT TO RETAIN OPTION OF QE3, MINUTES SAY
• SOME FED OFFICIALS SAW QE3 AS 'MORE POTENT TOOL' TO SPUR GROWTH.
• TWO FOMC MEMBERS FAVORED `STRONGER POLICY ACTION' LAST MONTH

Here's some more balance (personally I don't find the minutes very enlightening at all):

“A number of participants saw large-scale asset purchases as potentially a more potent tool that should be retained as an option in the event that further policy action to support a stronger economic recovery was warranted,” 


Not a new revelation...


"Additional asset purchases would constitute a third round of so-called quantitative easing after the Fed bought $2.3 trillion in housing and government debt in two rounds from December 2008 to June 2011. Some officials said expanding the Fed’s balance sheet further “would be more likely to raise inflation and inflation expectations than to stimulate economic activity and argued that such tools should be reserved for circumstances in which the risk of deflation was elevated,” 


So like I said, people see what they want, but there's the balance that the site quoted above who obviously has a reputational dog in the fight, didn't provide.


All in all, nothing new.