"There are substantial risks to the outlook in both directions," the bank's governor, Mervyn A. King, left, said.
"It will elicit a substantial revision in the outlook for the surplus, and we were already getting awfully close to not much left".
But, assuming my economic forecast holds true, I expect we will meet the test for substantial improvement in the outlook for the labor market by this summer.
They have said the Fed would keep buying bonds until there was a substantial improvement in the outlook for the labor market.
Announcing the decision on QE, made at its October policy meeting, the Fed said: "The committee judges that there has been a substantial improvement in the outlook for the labour market since the inception of its current asset purchase programme.
In a speech earlier this week to the National Association of Business Economists, the Fed's vice chairwoman, Janet Yellen, reaffirmed the Fed's commitment to its bold accommodative policies until there is a "substantial improvement in the outlook for the labor market".
The minutes stated: "A number of participants stated that an ongoing evaluation of the efficacy, costs and risks of asset purchases might well lead the committee to taper or end its purchases before it judged that a substantial improvement in the outlook for the labour market had occurred".
On April 3rd John Williams, who is president of the San Francisco Fed and a good proxy for the overall Federal Open Market Committee, saidAssuming my economic forecast holds true, I expect we will meet the test for substantial improvement in the outlook for the labor market by this summer.
But the Federal Open Market Committee reiterated its determination in January to hold course until there was "substantial improvement" in the outlook for job growth, and several officials cautioned at the meeting that the greater risk to the economy was in stopping too soon, according to the account, which was published after a standard three-week delay.
"If there's a substantial change in the economic outlook in either direction, then there would be a change in the outlook," Mr. Bernanke said.
"There are substantial downside risks to the outlook.
