Fed Votes to Maintain Bond-Buying Program

WASHINGTON — At their first meeting of the year, Federal Reserve policy makers voted unanimously on Wednesday to continue the central bank’s controversial $600 billion plan to spur the recovery by buying government bonds.

The Fed did note that commodity prices had risen, but cautioned that long-term inflation expectations had been stable and that measures of underlying inflation had continued to trend downward.

The acknowledgment about rising commodity prices was a slight but significant nod to the danger that the bond-buying plan could eventually touch off inflation.

As expected, the Fed left its benchmark short-term interest rate — the federal funds rate, at which banks borrow from each other overnight — at a range of 0 to 0.25 percent, where it has been since December 2008.

The unanimity within the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed panel that sets monetary policy, was a welcome and somewhat surprising vote of confidence for the Fed’s chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, who has shown a willingness since the crisis to use aggressive and unconventional measures to stimulate the economy, even in the face of criticism.

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It's QE to infinity. The moment they stop the money printing the house of cards will collapse. Of course it will collapse in any case. But they are hoping the kick the can down the road some more.