The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building
You’re in a tight parking spot in your brand new car. Trying to avoid the disaster of getting a ding or scratch on your vehicle you start the engine and slowly, very slowly, start to maneuver the big beast out of a narrow spot. No room for errors, you’ve got to get it perfect. I don’t know if that can be used to describe the Fed’s action this week but it comes pretty close. What they are trying not to dent is our big, shiny market and economy. The market has been like a rocket ship rising consistently since March of 2009 benefitting from the Fed’s aggressive monetary policy. The economy has benefitted as well, just at a slower pace. The market has been waiting for signals of when the Fed would take their foot off the stimulus gas pedal and start to reverse monetary policy. Great concern and debate surrounds what will happen when the Fed changes course. Can the Fed orchestrate the end of super easy monetary policy and not wreck, or at least avoid scratching, the market?