This may be a case of over-the-top tea-leaf reading.
So, by definition, it will be convoluted. But here goes. My interpretation of some comments made today byFederal Reserve Vice Chair Janet L. Yellen indicates the central bank will feel no rush to remove the famous “extended period” language from its post-meeting statements.
The reason for that, essentially, is that Yellen thinks the Fed’s conditionality around that phrase has been sufficient to allow market participants to change their views about when the central bank may finally come off its long-standing emergency easy policy, which features zero short-term interest rates. Said another way, the phrase “extended period” is flexible.
