The Fed's implicit tightening and simplification of monetary policy was not apparent merely in the message conveyed by the FOMC moments ago: it was also clearly visible in the grammar of the statement itself, and specifically in the word count. Because after hitting a record 895 words last month, the October statement [3]tumbled in complexity and its message to just 707 words: this is also the fewest words the Fed used to explain its actions in over a year, or since July of 2013.
To those who lament the Fed's inability to explain what it will do, fear not: we are quite confident that within a year, we will see the first 1000+ word FOMC statement as the Fed finds itself in the same place it was after QE1... and QE2... and Operating Twist... and so on.
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