The FOMC met this week and released their statement today. As expected, they held rates steady between 0 and 1/4 percent. The interesting and unexpected part of the statement is as follows: "To provide greater support to mortgage lending and housing markets, the Committee decided today to increase the size of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet further by purchasing up to an additional $750 billion of agency mortgage-backed securities, bringing its total purchases of these securities to up to $1.25 trillion this year, and to increase its purchases of agency debt this year by up to $100 billion to a total of up to $200 billion. Moreover, to help improve conditions in private credit markets, the Committee decided to purchase up to $300 billion of longer-term Treasury securities over the next six months." The Fed has alluded to buying Treasuries in the past but this is the first time they have come out and said it was something that was definitely going to happen. The market wa...