Economics

Fed Debate Over $4.5 Trillion Balance Sheet Looms in 2017

  • Calls to shrink portfolio come as economic outlook improves
  • Some say using balance sheet could blunt impact on dollar
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
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It’s time to talk about the balance sheet.

Eight years after the Federal Reserve launched the first of three controversial bond-buying campaigns to help save the U.S. economy, its holdings are stuck at $4.5 trillion, and the question of when to let them shrink is beginning to simmer.