It was an easy decision for the US Federal Reserve to end quantitative easing as minutes of October’s meeting showed little debate or dissent over the move to halt its history-making bond buying programme.
Although the run-up to the Federal Open Market Committee meeting was marked by financial turmoil and bad economic news from abroad, the FOMC decided even mentioning them would suggest more concern than it actually felt.
The relatively bland set of minutes underline the Fed’s more hawkish stance in October, showing a broad consensus about ending its third round of asset purchases – known as QE3 – and changes to weaken its forward guidance.