The Fed took the markets by surprise

The Fed took the markets by surprise last week when it announced it would NOT begin tapering its Treasury and mortgage bond buying. But this was just common sense. Since May, the Fed’s been hinting it could start tapering bond purchases in September, which sent bond prices south and mortgage rates north. People then worried this might hurt housing, a bright spot in our slow overall recovery. So it makes perfect sense for the Fed to keep buying billions a month worth of bonds to, in their words, “maintain downward pressure on longer-term interest rates.”