And in the last Federal Open Market Committee meeting, held on December 14–15 and published in January, the committee participants spoke not only of finishing the tapering, but also of a faster rate hiking. In addition, participants spoke of reducing the Fed's balance sheet (selling the assets it holds, shrinking its balance sheet and the monetary base, M0) while it is hiking rates or after. This is the process called quantitative tightening, which is the opposite of quantitative easing, an expansion of the Fed's balance sheet through asset purchases (expanding the monetary base).

Prior to the tapering announcement in November, the Fed was purchasing about $120 billion in assets a month ($80 billion in government bonds and $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities).