A Wall Street Journal interview with Charles Plosser, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
Plosser is retiring on March 1.
Says the FOMC statement needs a thorough rewrite
Says … get this … I love it:
- “Our statement is a bit like the Hotel California,” he said. “Words check in and they never check out. We have way too many words. I think our statement is too long. I think it is too confusing. I think it needs a thorough rewrite.
WSJ: … What will it mean when the Fed removes patient from its statement?
PLOSSER: It could mean different things to different people. The chair has articulated what she means. I think it is fair to say that once the committee chooses to remove “patient” that they are making a different statement about the likelihood and timing of rate increases. More precisely what that means, it will depend on economic conditions. We would save ourselves a lot of headaches and you guys writing a lot of words if we didn’t use (words like “patient”). I’ve been only marginally successful in reducing our efforts to do that.
More here, its ungated: Plosser says Fed ‘Will Struggle’ With Policy Statement at March Meeting
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OK … you knew this was coming … right?
