On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve released the minutes of its September meeting. Sounds boring, right? It’s not. Or, at least, it shouldn’t be. With gridlock preventing Congress from passing any legislation, the Fed is the only institution looking out for American workers.

Right now, the Fed is weighing when to raise interest rates. It’s a hugely important decision, because raising rates will slow economic growth. Sometimes that’s necessary, in order to avoid inflation. This is not one of those times. Inflation is low, real wages are still stagnant and inflation expectations—that is, what investors expect inflation to be over the next few years—are restrained. Those are three very good reasons to keep interest rates at zero.

Not everyone agrees with that analysis, however. For years, a group of economists and financial analysts has been arguing that the Fed should act, because an inflationary surge is imminent. That hasn’t happened, but these hawks aren’t rethinking their beliefs. Two of them sit on the Fed Board: Dallas Fed President Richer Fisher and Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser. They keep agitating for higher rates.

This is why Wednesday’s Fed minutes were so important. They gave us a glimpse into what those two and the rest of the Fed Board were saying the last time they met. And the news was good. It turns out that most Fed board members are more concerned with the underlying weakness of the economy than the specter of inflation. In particular, board members were worried about recent economic struggles in foreign countries. “Some participants expressed concern that the persistent shortfall of economic growth and inflation in the euro area could lead to a further appreciation of the dollar and have adverse effects on the U.S. external sector,” the minutes said. “Several participants added that slower economic growth in China or Japan or unanticipated events in the Middle East or Ukraine might pose a similar risk.”

The U.S. economy is subject to all kinds of forces, some of which are beyond the influence of Fed governors. The health of foreign economies, whether Chinese or European, is one of those. But interest rates are something over which the Fed has control. Led by chair Janet Yellen, the Fed seems to be exercising that control in the best way possible: by showing patience. For millions of Americans struggling to get jobs, or making too little in the jobs they have, that’s great news.