This is the part of the "longish" Fed Statement
that the morons on Wall Street were "mining" for rally points yesterday.
It's really so juvenile and superficial as to be quite pathetic.
And alas, the only key "incoming data point" was a MASSIVE rally in gold!
On reading the statement, it appears that the FED considers itself a key part of the WALL STREET TOUT MACHINE! So Very Sad really...
The Committee agreed that several changes in the wording of the announcement to be released after today's meeting would be appropriate. The federal funds rate had been boosted substantially, and, in the view of some members, it was now likely within a broad range of values that might turn out to be consistent with output remaining close to potential. In these circumstances, the Committee thought that policy should no longer be characterized as accommodative. Members concurred that the statement should note that the expansion remained solid despite elevated energy prices and hurricane-related disruptions. While inflation and long-term inflation expectations remained contained, the Committee agreed that the announcement should indicate that possible increases in resource utilization, as well as elevated energy prices, had the potential to add to inflation pressures and that "some further measured policy firming is likely to be needed to keep the risks to the attainment of both sustainable economic growth and price stability roughly in balance." Although future action would depend on the incoming data, this characterization of the outlook for policy was seen by most members as indicating that, given the information now in hand, the number of additional firming steps required probably would not be large. Some members thought that the word "measured" was no longer necessary, but its retention for this meeting was seen as potentially useful to preclude a possible misinterpretation that the Committee now saw a significant possibility of adjusting policy in larger increments in the near future. Wording of the announcement along these lines was not expected to have a substantial effect on market expectations for policy, though such effects were especially difficult to judge given the extensive changes being made to the statement. The members agreed that the announcement should end by noting that policy will respond to changes in economic prospects as needed to foster the Committee's objectives.
