The title of Marvin Goodfriend’s 1986 paper captured the situation well: “Monetary Mystique: Secrecy and Central Banking.” 1 In the 1990s, however, the Fed began to move toward greater transparency, with the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) providing more timely information about its policy decisions. This evolution in the direction of greater openness has continued.
And, in the last 10 years, there have been numerous changes in the FOMC’s communications policies: accelerated release of the minutes, an increase in the frequency and scope of participants’ economic projections, and the introduction of postmeeting news conferences, to name a few.