An economic recovery seems to have begun, and Federal Reserve officials are thinking mostly these days about how to unwind the unprecedented stimulus they've pumped into the economy. Eventually that will mean raising interest rates.

What will a Fed tightening cycle look like? When will it begin? Fed officials don't have answers to either question yet, and investors would be wrong to think they do. But the contours of what a rate-boost cycle could look like are beginning to come into focus as the Fed's next policy meeting approaches Tuesday and Wednesday.

Three points emerge: First, an internal debate on tightening policy and how to communicate that to the market is only just beginning, and most officials don't believe the economy is near healthy enough yet to move toward tightening. Second, don't count on a tightening cycle to look like the last one. And third, the behavior of financial markets could take on added importance this time.

In the weeks ahead, officials are likely to begin elaborating on the economic outlook and speaking more directly about how that will affect their decisions about interest rates. Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn took a step in that direction in a late September speech, in which he pointed to how hard it will be to fill in the blanks for investors.

"I cannot give you a small list of variables that will trigger an exit," he said. "As always, our forecasts will use all available sources of information. And I can't predict how rapidly we will have to raise short-term interest rates from around zero or remove other forms of accommodation; that too depends on how the economy seems to be recovering and the outlook for inflation."