FOMC May Want To Enhance Guidance On QE 'Fairly Soon,' Minutes Say

Many Fed policymakers at the November FOMC meeting said they would want to enhance guidance on QE "fairly soon," with most favoring tying asset purchases to economic outcomes, the minutes of the meeting said Wednesday.

• Would be appropriate to keep buying Treasuries and agency MBS "at least at the current pace" over "coming months."
• "Many participants judged that the Committee might want to enhance its guidance for asset purchases fairly soon."
• "Most participants favored moving to qualitative outcome-based guidance for asset purchases that links the horizon over which the Committee anticipates it would be conducting asset purchases to economic conditions."
• "A few participants were hesitant to make changes in the near term to the guidance for asset purchases and pointed to considerable uncertainty about the economic outlook and the appropriate use of balance sheet policies given that uncertainty."
• "the Committee could provide more accommodation, if appropriate, by increasing the pace of purchases or by shifting its Treasury purchases to those with a longer maturity without increasing the size of its purchases. Alternatively, the Committee could provide more accommodation, if appropriate, by conducting purchases of the same pace and composition over a longer horizon."
• Most officials said guidance "should imply that increases in the Committee's securities holdings would taper and cease sometime before the Committee would begin to raise the target range for the federal funds rate."
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