Federal Reserve policy makers judged that risks facing the U.S. economy argued for keeping interest rates near record lows for longer, minutes of their most recent policy meeting showed. “Many participants indicated that their assessment of the balance of risks associated with the timing of the beginning of policy normalization had inclined them toward keeping the federal funds rate at its effective lower bound for a longer time,” according to a record of the Jan. 27-28 Federal Open Market Committee meeting released on Wednesday in Washington. The committee, while considering risks to be “nearly balanced,” pointed to ... (full story)