The Federal Reserve is finishing up a meeting today in Washington, to which many economists and investors are looking for signs of just how long the central bank intends to keep up its aggressive monetary easing.

The Federal Reserve has released the minutes from its meeting in mid-December where the Fed's announced a major shift in it's policy.

Yesterday Federal Reserve Chief Ben Bernanke laid out the Fed's new economic stimulus plan. It's round 3 of so-called quantitative easing. The Fed will buy $40 billion worth of mortgage-backed securities every month, until it decides the economy has improved.

Later today, the Federal Reserve wraps up a two day policy-setting meeting. The big question is whether they'll launch another round of "quantitative Easing" -- buying up bonds to inject some money and a bit more pep into the U.S. economy.