Herding Cats at the Fed May Take Awhile
Ready, fire, aim.</br></br>According to critics of the Federal Reserve's unorthodox stimulus, that has been its ethos since the onset of the financial crisis.</br></br>To be fair, monetary policy is a crude weapon at the best of times, with lots of potential for collateral damage.</br></br>But when the central bank adds trillions of dollars in quantitative easing atop a zero-interest-rate policy, the results become even less predictable.</br></br>Statements by some voting members of the Federal Open Market Committee in favor of an economic target for ending extraordinary stimulus won't transform those monetary cluster munitions into sniper rifles. But at least they would give the market a better idea of when the all-clear may sound.