so as we go to a fuller consideration of how is the labor market performing, we need to take all of those things into account. >> thank you, madam chair. thank you, mr. chairman. >> senator shelby. >> thank you. thank you, chairman yellen for being here with us and congratulations. i want to talk to you a little bit about the portfolio of the fed. it's been mentioned. i understand it's about $4 trillion at the moment. you've tapered off some of the fed board of governors. you're still buying at the current rate, about $65 billion a month. at that rate, if you don't taper substantially or stop, you'll be getting up toward $5 trillion end of the year, more or less. is that correct? >> we are, as you say, around 4 trillion. >> but getting up to $5 trillion at the rate you're buying. >> if we don't continue to taper. >> but even if you taper and you continue to buy -- if you taper down from 65 to 50, that's still substantial buying in the market, is it not? >> it is. we've indicated that if the economy progresses as we anticipate, we expect to continue reducing the pace of purchases in measured steps which would mean ending completely the purchases, win