interest rates on us treasury bonds remain at record low levels holding down related types of credit including 30year home mortgageswashington houses are being built and sold across the united states autos are moving off lots corporations are raising money and overall financial conditions remain easy expectations were high in september that the us federal reserve as it rolled out a new monetary policy approach and continued battling a recession would ramp up its bond purchases to further boost the economy but the economy has stubbornly flashed a different signal steady as it goes advt the labor market is clawing back jobs each month albeit at a slowing pace while other data continues to surprise in a positive way us retail sales in september for example rose an unexpectedly strong 19 from the prior month and at nearly 550 billion are 37 above prepandemic levels the sort of outcome that may make the us central bank hesitant to tinker with its current 120 billion in monthly purchases of government bonds and mortgagebacked securities mbs with financial markets steady and credit readily available people and firms do buy houses buy cars and order equipment and software fed vice chair richard clarida said this week ticking off some of the transactions easy monetary policy traditionally expects to encourage and which the fed would fret about if found wanting right now we have got a good policy in place st louis fed president james bullard said during a panel on the sidelines of the international monetary fund and world bank annual meetings on friday we have our quantitative easing program in a place with a substantial amount of purchases i think that is appropriate interest rates on us treasury bonds remain at record low levels holding down related types of credit including 30year home mortgages more broadly even with the outcome of the coronavirus pandemic in doubt and millions of workers sidelined because of the crisis bullard and other fed officials have upgraded their economic forecasts in recent weeks closely watched indicators on credit markets and inflation expectations are at least holding steady if not improving advt limits to bond purchases if the economy in the spring seemed teetering towards the worst set of outcomes a more longlasting recession followed by rounds of loan defaults and a subsequent financial crisis it landed on a road to recovery with the economy evidently on the good path the federal open market committee wont take any further meaningful policy action unless something bad happens william nelson a former fed official who is now chief economist at the bank policy institute wrote this month referring to the feds policysetting committee that something could well occur fed officials have been blunt about the risks from an ongoing pandemic including a drop in household income from the lapse of unemployment insurance benefits or other developments that cause the recovery to sputter out fed asset purchases aim to bolster the economy in different ways by increasing demand for