In addition to raising the federal funds rate at its 13-14 June, the Federal Reserve addressed the issue of how it will roll off its massive holdings of securities.

At its 13-14 June, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) raised the federal funds rate by a quarter-percent (see Ag Perspectives, 14 June) to a target range of 1-1.25 percent. This is the fourth rate hike since December 2015, and the FOMC’s post-meeting notes indicated another one is likely in September.After its May meeting, the FOMC decided to maintain its existing policy of reinvesting all principal payments from its holdings of agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities back into agency mortgage-backed securities along with rolling over maturing Treasury s...