[msandford]

> If the Fed tried to sell its bond portfolio it would likely tank the market and cause interest rates to spike, undoing much—if not all of—the beneficial economic effects its efforts have achieved over the last few years.

Isn't that exactly the goal? To "raise interest rates"? I mean, the solution to the problem is the thing that they can't do? I don't get it. It makes no sense. The argument is circular.

If rates would spike too much -- which is the same as saying bond prices are falling -- then all they have to do is slow the rate at which they're selling the portfolio.