Fed Debated QE End in 2013 Amid Concern Over Total Assets

Federal Reserve officials, expressing concern over their swelling balance sheet, began debating an end to their unprecedented bond-buying as early as this year even while preparing to boost stimulus to a new record.

“Several” members of the Federal Open Market Committee said it would “probably be appropriate to slow or stop purchases well before the end of 2013,” according to minutes of their Dec. 11-12 meeting released yesterday. A “few” others were willing to let the program run to the end of the year while “a few others” didn’t give a time frame.