This conclusion bears in turn on the relationship between communication and policy flexibility in modern central banking. One sometimes hears the view that providing information to the public about the central bank’s forecasts, plans, and objectives inhibits the flexibility of policy by effectively restricting policymakers’ future choices.
This claim might be correct if the current setting of the federal funds rate fully described the overall degree of monetary stimulus or restraint, in the same way that the  11  I attribute this improved performance not only to technical improvements in modeling and forecasting but, perhaps more importantly, to increased attention by policymakers to the objective of keeping inflation low and stable.