I shared my framework for thinking about the change in balance sheet policy in early March, and today I will elaborate on the approach that seems most appropriate to achievement of our goals.7 Consideration that normalization of the federal funds rate is well underway was the criterion the Committee adopted in its December 2015 decision to continue to reinvest principal 8 4/7  BIS central bankers' speeches  payments.
That leads me to conclude that it is not appropriate to say that a surplus is a good thing while a deficit is bad.