Fed: The Worst Is Behind Us

Today marked another landmark on the path to economic recovery: Following a two-day meeting, the Federal Reserve issued its most hopeful assessment in more than a year, "noting signs of stabilization in household spending, financial markets and inventory building by corporations," The New York Times reports. “Economic activity is leveling out,” the Fed board said. The bank also announced that it would end its program to buy $300 billion worth of Treasury bonds by the end of October, indicating that policy makers were confident enough to lift one of their emergency props for the markets. At the same time, the bank announced that it would keep its short-term interest rate at virtually zero for now, and warned that recovery would slow and unemployment would likely remain high for the next year.