Fed Set to End Purchases, Two Former Governors Say

Bloomberg reports:

The Federal Reserve is set to halt its purchases of up to $300 billion in U.S. Treasuries in mid- September as scheduled, and will probably announce the decision next week, two former central bank governors said.

“They’re clearly not going to extend that program given the improvement in financial markets that’s going on,” said Lyle Gramley, senior economic adviser with New York-based Soleil Securities Corp. and a former governor.

Plans to buy as much as $1.25 trillion of mortgage-backed securities and $200 billion of federal agency debt expire at the end of the year, so the decision on whether to extend them may be delayed, former Fed Governor Laurence Meyer said in a report.