With the Fed’s Open Market Committee set to meet next week, expectations are rising that the languishing housing market will drive the central bank to buy up mortgage-backed securities. The goal of the purchases will be to drive down interest rates even further from current record-low levels, and, less obviously, to spur confidence that more monetary tools remain to stimulate the economy. Of course, the announcement also could push stock prices higher, as did the Fed's last balance sheet expansion begun in November 2010. Just a few months ago, market observers speculated that another round of quantitative easing — ... (full story)