The Fed becomes less reserved
TEXT OF STORY
Scott Jagow: Investors are waiting for some important information from the Federal Reserve today. The Fed releases the minutes of last month’s meeting, and there’ll be a lot more details about the economy as well. Nancy Marshall Genzer reports.
Nancy Marshall Genzer: The Fed will be serving up an early Thanksgiving feast today, heaping our plates with predictions for inflation, economic growth and unemployment for the next three years.
Until today, projections only looked ahead two years. Also, the Fed will start reading the economic tea leaves four times a year instead of twice.
Oberlin College economics professor Kenneth Kuttner says Fed critics are hungry for even more information, but this is a good start.
Kenneth Kuttner: It’s not throwing the windows open wide. But it’s just cracking them open a bit more.
The Fed is also giving us a better peek at inflation, for the first time factoring in volatile food and energy costs. That’s a good thing, says Former Fed Governor Lyle Gramley.
Lyle Gramley: I think consumers were confused before because the Fed seemed to be saying, “We don’t realize that people eat and drive automobiles.”
This feast of information should help us plan everything from when to buy a house to how many people we invite to Thanksgiving dinner.
In Washington, I’m Nancy Marshall Genzer for Marketplace.
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