A joint meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee and the Board of Governors was held in the offices of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, March 14, 2017, at 10:00 a.m. and continued on Wednesday, March 15, 2017, at 9:00 a.m.1 PRESENT: Janet L. Yellen, Chair William C. Dudley, Vice Chairman Lael Brainard Charles L. Evans Stanley Fischer Patrick Harker Robert S. Kaplan Neel Kashkari Jerome H. Powell Daniel K. Tarullo Marie Gooding, Jeffrey M. Lacker, Loretta J. Mester, and John C. Williams, Alternate Members of the Federal Open Market Committee James Bullard, ... (full story)

Most Federal Reserve officials said they backed a policy change that would begin shrinking the central bank’s $4.5 trillion balance sheet later this year, as they reiterated their outlook for gradual interest-rate increases. “Most participants anticipated that gradual increases in the federal funds rate would continue and judged that a change to the committee’s reinvestment policy would likely be appropriate later this year,” according to minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee’s March 14-15 meeting released Wednesday in Washington. “Many participants emphasized that reducing the size of the balance sheet should ... (full story)