In terms of overall size, the Fed’s balance sheet has more than doubled to just over $2 trillion. However, this increase has likely only partially offset the funds rate shortfall, and the FOMC has committed to further balance sheet expansion by the end of this year. Looking ahead even further over the next few years, the size and persistence of the monetary policy shortfall suggest that the Fed’s balance sheet will only slowly return to its pre-crisis level.This gradual transition should be fairly straightforward, as most new assets acquired by the Fed are either marketable securities or loans with maturities of 90 days or less. Still,any economic forecast is subject to considerable uncertainty. Some outside forecasters have warned of a deeper and more protracted recession, in which case, the monetary policy funds rate shortfall and the balance sheet expansion would be even larger and more persistent. In contrast, other analysts have argued that the Fed’s growing balance sheet will lead to a resurgence of inflation (despite Japan’s recent historical experience to the contrary of an increasing central bank balance sheet and falling inflation).With much higher inflation, the policy shortfall would be reduced and the Fed would need to shrink the size of its balance sheet and raise the funds rate earlier than suggested by Figure 2. Still, the Fed’s short-term loans can be unwound quickly, and its portfolio of securities can be readily sold into the open market, so there should be ample time to normalize monetary policy when needed. Finally, some economists have cautioned about reading too much into policy shortfall projections (and negative funds rate recommendations) that rely on uncertain estimates of the degree of economic slack. Such considerations are always important for real-time policymaking (Rudebusch 2001, 2006), but the degree of uncertainty regarding estimates of the natural, or normal, rate of unemployment over the past two decades pales in size relative to the depth of the ongoing recession.