Now that the Fed has shot all the bullets most of us can relate to, their end of the FOMC meeting announcements lack the same high drama. The one today was pretty much what you would exact. Going to keep rates at zero for the foreseeable future, the economy sucks and we’re buying securities and might buy some more. Here is the link to the statement.

You might also check this out at the WSJ Real Time Economics site. Jeffrey Lacker, the Richmond Fed President, is back in the rotation as a voting member of the committee. He’s been a dissenter before and piped up again today saying that he preferred expanding the monetary base by purchasing treasuries rather than through the current program of targeted credit programs. He also gave a speech recently in which he warned of the dangers of the Fed straying too far from its roots.

“Mixing monetary and fiscal policy is fraught with risks,” he said. “Many historical instances of monetary instability have been the result of central banks being prevailed upon to use their balance sheets for fiscal ends in ways that impeded their ability to keep inflation under control. . While at the present time, credit programs do not conflict with our monetary policy strategy, there could well come a time at which monetary stimulus needs to be withdrawn to prevent a resurgence of inflation, even though credit markets are not deemed fully healed.”

Things may not be all sweetness and light in Fedland these days.