Live Updates on Bernanke and the Fed

The Federal Reserve’s policy making committee is convening its last meeting of the year, and the question remains: Will this be the occasion to announce that the Fed is tapering the bond-buying program that has been a major component of its stimulus program? Two things are for sure: The Fed will release its latest economic forecast, and Ben S. Bernanke, nearing the end of his term as Fed chairman, will hold a news conference at 2:30 p.m. We’ll be following the events in a live blog here.

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1:58 P.M. The Pros and Cons on Tapering

Here’s what’s pushing the Fed to taper.

The unemployment rate has fallen to 7 percent from 7.8 percent a year ago. Employers have added more than a million jobs over the past year. The housing market is showing new strength, and rising home values have sharply reduced the number of Americans who are underwater on their mortgages. The economy is growing at a 3.6 percent annualized rate.

Here’s what’s holding it back.

Core inflation remains tame, meaning the economy is at no risk of overheating. About four million Americans have been out of a job for more than six months. Much of the decline in the unemployment rate is due to discouraged workers’ dropping out of the labor force. Consumer spending has proven weak, and wages have continued to decline, in real terms, through the recovery.

â€" Annie Lowrey

1:39 P.M. Waiting for Yellen

While Wednesday’s news conference is the last one scheduled for Mr. Bernanke, it is not the last meeting of policy makers he will preside over.

Mr. Bernanke’s term as chairman ends Jan. 31, 2014. If Janet Yellen is confirmed, as expected, as his successor, she will officially take over on Feb. 1. Mr. Bernanke, therefore, will be chairman at the Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Jan. 28 and 29. If the Fed doesn’t begin tapering its stimulus efforts Wednesday, and wants to let Ms. Yellen oversee that call, any decision will have to wait until March 18 and 19, when the policy making committee next meets.

The succession of Ms. Yellen and the timing issue have prompted some economists to suggest that the Fed will hold off on any tapering until March. We’ll find out shortly if they are right.

â€" Nelson D. Schwartz