The Fed would only pause on the GM news if there were some indication that the news threatens the health of the economy as a whole or the health of the financial markets as a whole.

There is nothing at this point to suggest that Fed officials will pause.

We suspect that if the economy remains as soft as it has been lately, the Fed may very well decide a break is in order somewhere along the way.

It does look like the economy is losing steam. After two years of Fed tightening, it's simply gotten more expensive to finance whatever it is you're trying to finance.

The November minutes were taken as a sign of an impending pause and I don't think the Fed wants to give that message. If the economy is still growing fast, they may have to raise rates above 5 percent.

There's a point at which the Fed has to indicate that it has to pause and look around for a while, and that could come in these minutes, or the next ones.