January 25–26, 2011 FOMC Minutes

Our reading

The minutes are consistent with the statement because both documents reflect the same key themes: the economic recovery is continuing but at an insufficient pace to significantly improve labor market conditions, household spending has picked up but remains constrained, business investment is rising while the housing sector is depressed, underlying inflation is trending downward, and the FOMC decided to maintain its asset purchase program and the federal funds rate target range to support the recovery and ensure inflation is at mandate-consistent levels.

FOMC minutes

Voting for this action: Ben Bernanke, William C. Dudley, Elizabeth Duke, Charles L. Evans, Richard W. Fisher, Narayana Kocherlakota, Charles I. Plosser, Sarah Bloom Raskin, Daniel K. Tarullo, Kevin Warsh, and Janet L. Yellen.

Voting against this action: None.

Next, the Committee turned to a discussion of its external communications, specifically the importance of communicating both broadly and effectively. FOMC participants noted the importance of fair and equal access by the public to information that could be informative about future policy decisions, and they considered approaches to address this issue. Several participants noted that increased clarity of communications was a key objective, and some referred to the central role of communications in the monetary policy transmission process. A focus of the discussion was on how to encourage dialogue with the public in an appropriate and transparent manner. The subcommittee on communications agreed to consider whether further guidance in this area would be useful.

It was agreed that the next meeting of the Committee would be held on Tuesday, March 15, 2011. The meeting adjourned at 2:40 p.m. on January 26, 2011.