The Federal Reserve launched a secret probe into a leak of the Oct 4 FOMC minutes, Bloomberg reports.
A day earlier Medley Global Advisors released a report that described a fly-on-the wall account of the Sept 2012 meeting.
“The minutes of September’s meeting will show, however, that the groundwork for further action in coming months has been laid, and that labor market improvement is unlikely to be substantial enough to stave off new Treasury purchases into 2013,” Medley wrote.
The report was so detailed that Fed officials launched a probe, although the findings were never released. The Fed went on to add $45 billion of Treasury purchases in the Dec meeting.
Bernanke also asked the Fed to looking to the sources behind a Sept 28, 2012, article from WSJ Fedwatcher Jon Hilsenrath who also described internal documents the Fed used to make the same decision, although in less detail.
I’m not sure there is much to takeaway here but there has been a quiet shift at the Fed to cut down on leaks and it shows in the Fedwatcher reporting, especially since Yellen took over.
