As Warsh and the Fed contemplate fewer meetings, markets brace for potential volatility ahead
Add the possibility of fewer meetings into the mix of how Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh wants to reduce the central bank's footprint on financial markets, a move that some experts say could introduce both volatility and opportunity for investors. Since taking office in May, Warsh has implemented several measures that reverse decades of Fed culture in which policymakers have been aggressively transparent some say overly so about where they think monetary policy is headed. Thus far, he has curtailed so-called forward guidance, or how the Fed signals its future rate moves, dramatically shortened the postmeeting statement and provided cryptic and often evasive answers when questioned about his views during the two news conferences he's held so far. Now comes the possibility, discussed in what one Fed source described as mostly hypothetical terms, of reducing the long-held schedule of eight meetings each year for the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee. Such a move w...
