The Federal Reserve Board has always been very careful regarding making public statements that will affect the markets. As a matter of fact, in years past the Fed was much more clandestine regarding their opinions to avoid roiling investors. So much so that there were complaints about the Fed not being open enough about what they were up to. This led for calls for a more open Fed.

More recently, the members have made an effort to communicate more publicly. There are scores of public speeches and additional testimony in front of various congressional committees. There has been so much communication that some are now complaining about “over-communication.” Despite this additional communication, there is still a black-out period in which public states are limited in the period before a Fed meeting.

Indeed, the present time seems to be such a period of excessive communication. After all, the Fed has not raised or lowered interest rates for just about a year. They have made adjustments in the run-off rate of their portfolio, but no actual rate movements have been announced. Thus, the Fed may be trying to control interest rates more through their statements, rather than their actions. For example, so many speeches by Federal Reserve Governors have mentioned that progress against inflation has been slower than expected, it feels as if the Fed does not want the markets to become too optimistic about the prospects of a rate decrease. In theory, they could be supporting the current level of long-term rates as a result. A valid observation or a vivid imagination? Not sure—but it would be nice if the Fed publicly took a more balanced approach.