Nine to three vote on holding rates; broad agreement on hard questions, different views on answers.

The broader discussion to my ear over the course of the last days showed a lot of agreement on the hard questions. The four questions I raised at the outset about what's really happening in the economy with the shocks and absent the shocks. What are our tools and our capabilities? What's the effect on... on prices on an output. I heard a lot of commonality on the questions. Were there different liens on the answers? You bet there was. So could people come to different conclusions? Absolutely. But my own judgment is this is a period of watchful thinking, not watchful waiting.