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Fed, worried about recovery, will buy US debt

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-08-11 05:54
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Fed, worried about recovery, will buy US debt
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner (R) meets with Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke (3rd L) at the Treasury Department in Washington July 29, 2010. [Agencies]

WASHINGTON -- As recently as two months ago, the Federal Reserve sounded optimistic about the US economic recovery. Now the central bank is clearly more worried, and economists say there is not much more it can do to help.

The Fed said Tuesday that it would spend a relatively small amount of money -- about $10 billion a month, economists estimate -- buying government debt. The move is designed to drive interest rates on mortgages and corporate borrowing at least a little lower and help the economy grow faster.

In a statement after a one-day meeting, the Fed said the pace of the recovery "has slowed in recent months." After its last meeting in late June, the Fed was rosier, saying that the recovery was "proceeding" and the job market actually improving.

The decision to buy government debt, using proceeds from Fed investments in mortgage bonds, was a shift from earlier this year, when the Fed was laying out plans to roll back some of the measures it took during the financial crisis.

At that time, the Fed was also preparing a strategy to begin raising interest rates again, a step taken to keep a growing economy from overheating. Now, though, the Fed has decided to keep its benchmark interest rate near zero.

"I don't think they are going to raise interest rates until it is very clear that unemployment is moving definitively lower and that doesn't look likely until late 2011," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics.

Economists pointed out that buying $10 billion of government debt in a $14 trillion economy is a relatively small move, and they said they did not expect it to have a dramatic impact.

"The Fed talked loudly but carried a small stick," said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors.

He said that while the financial system has the money to lend, banks are unwilling or unable to find suitable loans to make. Until they do, he said, "the recovery will be softer than anyone hoped for and there may be little the Fed can do about it."

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