The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) – the board of directors of the Federal Reserve decided to continue to “taper” – reduce their rate of monthly purchasing under their quantitative easing policy. The taper in the 18 December 2013 meeting was $10 billion, the 29 January 2014 meeting added $10 of taper, the 19 March meeting tapered $10 million. the 30 April meeting tapered $10 million, the 18 June meeting tapered $10 million, the 30 July meeting tapered $10 million, and this 17 September meeting another $10 million. The most notable words are in this statement:  If incoming information broadly supports the Committee’s expectation of ongoing improvement in labor market conditions and inflation moving back toward its longer-run objective, the Committee will end its current program of asset purchases at its next meeting.

Has Yellen come to realiza that the intractable unemployment problems in the US are nothing the Fed can help?