Tom Metzold, a senior portfolio manager in Eaton Vance's municipal bond division, was more blunt. When asked what the Fed would do next year, he replied: "Nothing. 2016."
"They're more afraid of dumping us back into a recession than they are of inflation," Metzold said.
And it is not just a view among U.S. asset managers.
Pascal Blanque, chief investment officer at the $1.2 trillion Amundi Asset Management in Paris, said: "I am not convinced at all that the Fed will deliver any tightening in the foreseeable future."
The measure of inflation favored by the Fed has stayed half a percentage point or more below the Federal Open Market Committee's 2 percent target every month since January 2013 and has not hit the target since the spring of 2012.
Recent developments, such as the plunge in oil prices, while generally excluded from the Fed's calculus, indicate that the overall trend in prices is not tilted toward accelerating inflation.
And there is no evidence yet of appreciable wage gains for U.S. workers, a central concern for Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen. Average hourly earnings are growing at just 1.8 percent on an annual basis, half the rate seen before the recession.
Still, many Fed policymakers sound determined to press ahead with interest rate increases next year, wary of the lasting effects of leaving rates close to zero for so long. The Fed cut its benchmark rate to a range of 0.0 to 0.25 percent in December 2008. It followed through with $3.7 trillion of bond purchases aimed at suppressing longer-term rates and stimulating credit growth, only ending the purchases last month.
Market-based measures of the timing of the first rate hike have been slipping further into 2015. Fed funds futures prices indicate September 2015 is the first month with a better than 50 percent probability of a Fed hike. That compares with June several months ago.
One top asset manager, however, expects the Fed to act sooner.