The FOMC Meeting Minutes: An Update of Counting Words

The Federal Reserve's communications with the public have evolved substantially since the early 1990s and today include: policy statements released shortly after the conclusion of monetary policy meetings; minutes of those meetings issued three weeks later; quarterly economic forecasts from the members of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the presidents of the Federal Reserve Banks; the Chair's press conferences four times per year; a semi-annual Monetary Policy Report that is submitted to the Congress and released to the public, along with the Chair's testimony on that report; and transcripts of monetary policy meetings published after five years. In this note, we focus on the minutes of Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings.

Duke Scholars

Author Ellen E Meade Economics