The FOMC has not been clear about the purpose of its forward guidance. Is it purely a transparency device, or is it a way to commit to a more accommodative future policy stance to add more accommodation today? This lack of clarity makes it difficult to communicate the stance of policy and the conditionality of policy on the state of the economy.
Note that most formulations of standard, simple policy rules suggest that the federal funds rate should rise very soon – if not already. In other words, the zero lower bound no longer appears to be binding. However, the FOMC has provided forward guidance indicating that the federal funds rate will need to be low for some time to come.