The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will hold a highly anticipated meeting on September 21-22. We describe the meeting as "highly anticipated" because the issue of the Fed tapering its asset purchases is very much on the minds of most market participants. To recap, the Federal Reserve bought significant amounts of U.S. Treasury securities and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) when the pandemic essentially shut down the economy in the spring of 2020. Last December, the Committee said that the Fed would continue to buy Treasury securities and MBS at monthly rates of $80 billion and $40 billion, ... (full story)