Getting your player ready...
WASHINGTON — When Federal Reserve policymakers meet this week, there is likely to be plenty of spirited debate behind closed doors. But the announcement of its result Wednesday afternoon is poised to be a snoozer, by conventional measures.
The Fed is almost certain to leave the federal funds rate, which it controls, near zero.
How strong, and how lasting, will the incipient recovery turn out to be?
The consensus of the Federal Open Market Committee appears to be that the recovery is sufficiently fragile, and the risk of inflation sufficiently remote, that the central bank needs to keep doing (almost) all it can to support the economy.
