There has been an abundance of hand-wringing on Wall Street over when the Federal Reserve will begin scaling back the monthly bond purchases that have boosted the stock market and tamped down interest rates.
Embedded in the anxiety is the assumption that the taper will be a Very Big Deal, one that signals the central bank's plans for the remainder of its quantitative easing program, the path of interest rates and when it believes the panda at the National Zoo will have a cub.
But what if those fears are unfounded? What if the taper is . . . tiny?