WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Members of the Federal Open Market Committee at their mid-December meeting saw increasing risks of depression and deflation as they grappled with employing new tools to stabilize an economy that was rapidly weakening, according to truncated minutes of the meeting released on Tuesday. Some participants at the meeting saw "the distinct possibility of a prolonged contraction, although that was not judged to be the most likely outcome," the minutes said. Inflationary pressures were likely to dissipate, and "some members saw significant risks that inflation could decline and persist for a time at uncomfortably low levels." At the meeting on Dec. 15 and 16, the policymaking committee of the U.S. central bank took several unprecedented measures to combat the recession, including lowering its interest-rate target to a range just above zero and switching the focus of monetary policy to unconventional methods to get financial markets and economic activity growing again. The members of the FOMC expect the U.S. economy to contract sharply in the fourth quarter and in early 2009 and to "begin to recover slowly in the second half" of the year. However, the members also saw considerable uncertainly about the outlook, including the possibility that the downturn could be much deeper and longer. "The downside risks to even this weak trajectory for economic activity were a serious concern," the minutes said. http://www.marketwatch.com/news/sto...F3-9D82-4876-B73B-5AC719F02C61}&dist=hplatest
What the Fed members saw was the specter of getting fired if they didn't seem like they were "doing something".
if they werent all brain dead they would have realized that there inability to clamp down on cheap credit is why were here in the first place