Fed minutes show some disagreement on how long central bank should keep buying bonds

WASHINGTON – Federal Reserve policymakers expressed broad support last month for the Fed’s plan to buy bonds to support the U.S. economy.

But they differed over how long to keep buying bonds to drive down long-term interest rates.

Minutes of the Fed’s December policy meeting show that some of the 12 voting members thought the bond purchases would be warranted through the end of this year.

Others felt the purchases should be slowed or stopped altogether before the end of 2013. This group was concerned that too much bond buying by the Fed might destabilize the economy.

The Fed ended up approving open-ended purchases of $85 billion a month in Treasury securities and mortgage backed bonds to maintain its level of bond purchases.