To some extent, when there are too many disparate voices, such risks of miscommunication – the danger of cacophony, as Alan Blinder18 once put it – can be mitigated by putting discipline on communication by monetary policy committees – the Governing Council in the case of the ECB. In fact, the case for disciplined communication is even stronger at the lower bound.
All this is not to say that we should ignore what investors think and expect. Market intelligence is an important input into the analysis of financial market developments.