Taking The Mystery Out of Fed Forecast
November 15th at 12:00pm by Tom Lydon
The Federal Reserve announced plans to take the secrecy out of their policy-making, explaining they will take the effort to disclose more information concerning economic forecasts. Details regarding growth and inflation objectives will also be less mysterious. Edmund Andrews for The New York Times reports that these changes will open a window on the Fed’s thinking and that this is forward progress coming from 20 years of obsessive secrecy to greater openness.
Beginning this month the central bank will publish economic forecasts four times a year instead of only twice. These reports will look 3 years into the future, instead of 2, and will give details about the range of views among policy makers.
These changes stray far from Alan Greenspan’s practices from 1987 to 2006. However, the future changes are small in respect to Ben Bernanke’s "inflation target" that would be a basis for Fed policy.
