Whilst the Fed decision overnight was as expected, they did maintain the “extended period” phrase which suggests that they will not increase interest rates for at least 6-months. That would take us right up to the end of this year and more likely sometime in 2011.
Of course with US unemplyment a rounding error below 10%, they could hardly change their monetary stance – obviously they are studying what Japan did wrong in the 1990s. Yes one of their mistakes was to raise interest rates too early.