The word Wall St .can't stop saying: taper

The Fed is pumping $85 billion into the economy each month, but it can't last forever. Christine Romans explains 'the taper'.

市场最关注的美联储利率会议尘埃落定，美联储在为期两天的联邦公开市场委员会会议结束后发布会议决议，宣布将坚持每月购买850亿美元债券的计划，即在收购450亿美元长期国债的同时收购400亿美元的抵押贷款担保证券，同时，联邦基金利率水平则一如预计继续保持在0-0.25%的超低水平。

美联储主席伯南克会后表示，美联储预计在结束购买资产和升息之间会有相当长的一段时间，在利率方面，他认为，失业率降至6.5%不会自动引发升息，上调短期利率为时尚早，即使开始上调利率，也是逐步的。伯南克还表示，绝大多数美联储成员预计美联储在政策正常化进程中不会出售抵押贷款支持证券，他指出楼市、州及地方政府已经从拖累经济转变为支撑经济增长。

Hollywood has It girls. Wall Street has It words.

You’ve gotta stop with the bond buying and start to taper.

'Taper' is the latest It word on Wall Street.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is tonight’s top-10 list.

It won’t make Letterman’s top-10 list.

The taper?

The taper?

Yes.

About which, I don’t know.

It was the politics?

So what is a taper?

It’s not a zoo animal (tapir), or a CNN anchor, or a way to wear your jeans (tapered leg). It’s Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s toughest job yet. How does he taper down from historic stimulus? It’s likely the final challenge for this chief.

He’s already stayed a lot longer than he wanted or he was supposed to.

And he’s done what no Fed chief has done before. Basically, he’s holding a fire hose, spraying $85 billion a month straight into the economy. It can’t go on forever, and the obsession on Wall Street over when it will end is probably the most important driver of your 401K right now. Taper, as unlikely Wall Street lingo(方言；行话；隐语), joins a list that includes quantitative easing, fiscal cliff, sequester. Remember 'tarp'? Sometimes the jargon sounds Greek(晦涩难懂的) to the rest of us.

Speaking of Greece, austerity is the word on the street there, the opposite of Bernanke’s actions. If he were a little rascal, he’d be this guy, throwing money from the window. The dilemma for the Fed: Take away the treadding wheels too soon and the economy could crash. But fail to taper, and this economy may not take flight on its own.

Christine Romans, CNN, New York.