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fomc | 2,002 | Yes, thereafter. The act cannot be used to put people through the FOIA process for obtaining information when that information has already been determined to be public. There is a specific provision that says that, once an agency has acted on a request for a particular type of information, the agency has to make it ava... | 79 |
fomc | 2,002 | Supposing we argue that it is detrimental to our policymaking processes to do this and we take this issue to court--is there any conceivable scenario that you can think of in which we would prevail? | 40 |
fomc | 2,002 | No. We had the ability to prevail until the Committee changed its practice with regard to the release of its policy decision. Once you release the decision you must release the vote. | 35 |
fomc | 2,002 | My understanding is that once we decided in 1994 to announce any change in the target federal funds rate shortly after our meetings, it brought this entire FOIA mechanism into play. So, in response to a question we have to release the vote tally and how each individual voted. | 56 |
fomc | 2,002 | Correct. | 2 |
fomc | 2,002 | And how timely this is done doesn't enter into the equation? We can't say that we will release the information but only at a point in time when it would tend not to be detrimental to our immediate operations? | 41 |
fomc | 2,002 | Well, I don't see how we could. We would have to show that to release it before the minutes are released is going to cause the government financial harm. | 32 |
fomc | 2,002 | Financial harm is the issue? | 6 |
fomc | 2,002 | Right. The reason we didn't have to release the directive before 1994 was that we argued, and prevailed, that we couldn't release the directive before the Desk fully implemented the FOMC's decision because it would cause the government financial harm. Whether that was right or wrong, that's what we argued, and the Cour... | 162 |
fomc | 2,002 | Now we have gotten this legal advice on the table. There are arguments on the other side, and I don't know if they outweigh the legal advice. Most of the arguments on the other side go in the direction of the point that Cathy just raised, which is whether immediate disclosure might somehow or other feed back onto our d... | 525 |
fomc | 2,002 | I was sitting on the fence until I heard the legal opinion. And what struck me is that the real choices are whether we change our practice now or whether we do it essentially in response to other people's actions. If I thought that we could go on indefinitely the way we are, frankly I would think seriously about not re... | 145 |
fomc | 2,002 | Okay. President Jordan. | 5 |
fomc | 2,002 | I would have preferred to leave our practice as it was. But now I see this as a done deal because we're going to release minutes in six or seven weeks that will reflect this discussion. So now I'm going to have to decide whether I want to vote against this and have the press disclose that I'm against transparency! [Lau... | 80 |
fomc | 2,002 | Well, the Secretary always writes the minutes very carefully. And I say this quite seriously: You ought to vote for what you think is right. We can manage the fact that we had a discussion about ongoing issues regarding transparency. If you feel despite this legal opinion and other considerations that this is still not... | 102 |
fomc | 2,002 | I'd like to pick up on the slippery slope point that you talked about. I don't think we can consider this from the perspective of whether we do or do not want to make the vote public. I believe we want to think about the world as it will exist under the new scenario and examine that a bit to see whether or not there ar... | 426 |
fomc | 2,002 | Could Virgil answer the question, Is there a step 1? Weren't you saying that we'd have to release both the tally and the names of any dissenters? | 35 |
fomc | 2,002 | If we have a request under the Freedom of Information Act, yes. | 14 |
fomc | 2,002 | Okay, so there isn't really.... | 7 |
fomc | 2,002 | There is a kind of conceptual step 1, right? | 12 |
fomc | 2,002 | Yes. | 2 |
fomc | 2,002 | That step is deciding just to disclose the vote tally. And then people will try to identify the dissenter or dissenters. | 25 |
fomc | 2,002 | May I ask a follow-up question to counsel? | 10 |
fomc | 2,002 | Sure. | 2 |
fomc | 2,002 | Let's say I dissent, which I don't plan to do, and the press asks me why I dissented. Is there a FOIA obligation for me to explain that? Or can I explain it when I choose to explain it or when the Committee chooses to have me explain it? | 56 |
fomc | 2,002 | Under the Committee's current procedures, when the Committee releases the minutes the reason for your dissent is in the minutes. | 23 |
fomc | 2,002 | I thought a member need not put the reason for his dissent in the minutes. | 16 |
fomc | 2,002 | He need not. But if he chooses to, of course-- | 13 |
fomc | 2,002 | But I think that's the question that's being asked, is it not? | 14 |
fomc | 2,002 | No. He understood the question I asked. My question was, Do I have to answer inquiries about the reason for my dissent as soon as somebody from the press asks for it? | 36 |
fomc | 2,002 | I see. | 3 |
fomc | 2,002 | And the answer to that I gather is "no." | 11 |
fomc | 2,002 | The answer is "no." | 6 |
fomc | 2,002 | But that's not a great deal of comfort. | 9 |
fomc | 2,002 | No, it's not. May I respond to a point that President Santomero raised? We have a process now of disclosing the existence of contrary views, including the strength and nature of those views, in the minutes. I do not think anything we've talked about here would change that process. Certainly I am not putting on the tabl... | 492 |
fomc | 2,002 | Roger, when was the last time that we had dissents on a discount rate action? | 18 |
fomc | 2,002 | The last time I saw was 1991. | 10 |
fomc | 2,002 | Yes. | 2 |
fomc | 2,002 | So that was before our current practice of releasing a statement--which does get a lot of attention--that began in 1994. | 27 |
fomc | 2,002 | Things certainly have changed. | 5 |
fomc | 2,002 | And all the wire services pick up our decision quite promptly. | 12 |
fomc | 2,002 | That's absolutely true. But the other side of the coin is that in that earlier period the discount rate was the only signal about decisions on interest rate movements that was made public. Everything else had to be gathered from trying to interpret the operations of the Desk. So there was certainly some focus on discou... | 135 |
fomc | 2,002 | Well, I wish we had never started down this road as well. But I am uncomfortable about releasing the vote tally, including the name of a dissenter, by itself. The important information is really not found in the numerical tally but in the direction and the rationale for any dissents. Simply reporting the existence of a... | 212 |
fomc | 2,002 | FOIA is an American law. | 7 |
fomc | 2,002 | Exactly. | 2 |
fomc | 2,002 | That's right. President Broaddus. | 8 |
fomc | 2,002 | I came in here expecting to resist this for all of the reasons that Bob Parry just summarized. But what I'm hearing is that it's the law of the land, and I believe this institution needs to follow the spirit as well as the letter of the law. So I think we have to do it. But to come back to something that you said, Roge... | 131 |
fomc | 2,002 | Al, do you mean we have to release the names or release the names and the rationale? | 19 |
fomc | 2,002 | As I understood it, to abide by the spirit of the law we should release the dissenters and the names of the dissenters but not the argument, right? | 33 |
fomc | 2,002 | That's correct. | 3 |
fomc | 2,002 | You're not required to release the argument. | 8 |
fomc | 2,002 | We're not required to do that. But we are required, essentially, to do the other? | 19 |
fomc | 2,002 | Correct. | 2 |
fomc | 2,002 | All I'm saying is that I think we have to recognize that and do it. But if we do that, then we need to get the full argument on the table as quickly as possible. That's because, even if the dissenters don't give their rationale for dissenting, the focus is going to be on those dissents. So at that point the picture bec... | 93 |
fomc | 2,002 | President Hoenig. | 4 |
fomc | 2,002 | Given this discussion, I believe as Al does that things have changed here. But I think releasing the vote and identifying who dissents without context is counterproductive. I think it is harmful. As you said, we have a consensus; we have someone who disagrees with it, and the consensus carries. That consensus is really... | 172 |
fomc | 2,002 | President Guynn. | 4 |
fomc | 2,002 | Most of the points I wanted to make have been made, so I won't repeat them. But building on what Tom just said, couldn't we make the argument that if we were to release the minutes a bit earlier, perhaps in ten days or two weeks, that that would be satisfactory? I'd suggest that we give ourselves more time to think abo... | 198 |
fomc | 2,002 | Chairman Greenspan. | 5 |
fomc | 2,002 | May I make a suggestion? In listening to this discussion, it is evident that this is a very involved situation. Therefore, I think it probably would be wise for us to have a more thorough set of options and integrate into the paper the legal imperatives, which it didn't have. One option that we do have is essentially t... | 108 |
fomc | 2,002 | Wow! | 2 |
fomc | 2,002 | Did you faint? [Laughter] | 8 |
fomc | 2,002 | Our next retirement party will be Don's! [Laughter] | 13 |
fomc | 2,002 | But before we reach a decision--and I think it's rather obvious that this is an important decision that should not be made in haste--I think it's worthy of further thought. We don't have to make a decision today. | 44 |
fomc | 2,002 | Certainly after this discussion I strongly agree with that. What I think we need to do now, having seen that this issue is in a sense more complex than anyone thought originally, is to come back with a fuller range of options. One option we can consider--and it's something I've been opposed to until now, but I may have... | 270 |
fomc | 2,002 | You know, there is an option we haven't discussed. We have essentially two sets of disclosures with respect to every meeting. One is the minutes, and the other is the transcript. I'm not recommending this necessarily, but we could probably produce summary minutes within twenty-four hours. So we'd have three documents c... | 77 |
fomc | 2,002 | There are a number of options, and we really do have to think about them. But we need to realize that we are going to be in a position where we have to disclose dissenters earlier than we currently do. The message that I'm taking from this discussion is that we would prefer to do that in such a way that it creates cont... | 134 |
fomc | 2,002 | I agree completely that we should delay this decision and study the options further. I would like to know how quickly we could produce minutes of the same quality that we put out now. And in addition to the criteria you were laying out, Roger, I would suggest two more. I think we also have to do this in a way that does... | 134 |
fomc | 2,002 | We absolutely don't want to destroy that. President Stern. | 11 |
fomc | 2,002 | I'll await the next round of discussion on this. | 10 |
fomc | 2,002 | President Poole. | 4 |
fomc | 2,002 | Given the legal opinion that's on the table, it seems to me that the issue is rather narrow. First of all, we need to know whether minutes in two weeks, for example, would satisfy the law. And if there's a view that it wouldn't, then we might as well take minutes in two weeks off the table because that's not going to d... | 271 |
fomc | 2,002 | As I said, I think we can manage that. Also, I believe you're probably right that if we're going to maintain credibility and trust, it's better for us to be ahead of the game as opposed to being caught in an awkward position. So this is a question of being thoughtful about how to be ahead of the game, I think. | 68 |
fomc | 2,002 | Roger, could I speak to that? | 8 |
fomc | 2,002 | Yes, please. | 4 |
fomc | 2,002 | We all maintain a lot of data that we have found over the years are subject to a FOIA request. Having data that are "FOIA-able" in one form or another and not releasing those data in the absence of such a request is not illegal. That's not something we have to be ashamed about. We don't have to feel that just because i... | 163 |
fomc | 2,002 | I agree with that. We may look at the various options and decide that none of them makes us feel comfortable and we will just take the risk of waiting. That's a decision for the Committee. Governor Bies. | 43 |
fomc | 2,002 | If the goal of this is to increase understanding and transparency, I'm a little uncomfortable saying that we would have a press officer provide this information in response to a question--even if that were to happen today--because that means that we don't control the release of the information. One of the things we mig... | 349 |
fomc | 2,002 | President Poole does raise an interesting question. When a FOIA request is presented, there's often a significant time lag before an institution responds because there's the matter of getting the information together. Is there any reasonable standard whereby we could conceivably put out the minutes, say, two weeks late... | 68 |
fomc | 2,002 | I'd have to look at that. But there is a prescribed timetable; you have ten or fifteen days in which you have to make a response to a FOIA request. So if you could get the minutes out within that time period, technically you could follow that procedure. | 54 |
fomc | 2,002 | So that may be one option. | 7 |
fomc | 2,002 | That's only the first time, though, isn't it? | 11 |
fomc | 2,002 | That's the first time. | 5 |
fomc | 2,002 | No, technically--I'd have to look at this more closely--you can do it for every vote at every meeting. | 24 |
fomc | 2,002 | That's important to know--whether we have that option--in this particular discussion. | 16 |
fomc | 2,002 | Governor Olson. | 3 |
fomc | 2,002 | When I saw the questions being presented I couldn't help think back to thirty years ago when I was working on the staff of a Republican Congressman from Minnesota. I spent a remarkable amount of time considering the issue of the Fed's independence and answering questions about whether or not Fed secrecy was in fact an ... | 419 |
fomc | 2,002 | Well, let me close the discussion if I might, Mr. Chairman. I think we have some marching orders here, to which Don, Virgil, and I--and perhaps we'll get some other volunteers--will respond. We'll have to try to come back to this Committee by the March meeting with a range of options. If it's all right with you, Mr. Ch... | 318 |
fomc | 2,002 | That March meeting is scheduled for March 19. This meeting is adjourned, and we will have some interesting luncheon conversations. First of all, Don Winn will do, as he puts it, "an abbreviated legislative report." Then Brian Madigan will discuss the Lombard facility. Let's go eat. | 61 |
fomc | 2,002 | Good morning, everyone. Would somebody like to move approval of the minutes of our January 29-30 meeting? | 23 |
fomc | 2,002 | So move. | 3 |
fomc | 2,002 | Without objection, they are approved. Mr. Kos. | 11 |
fomc | 2,002 | 1 Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will be referring to the set of charts that has been distributed. In the top panel on the first page, U.S. cash and forward deposit rates are shown in red. The forward rates--the dashed red lines--moved higher in a more pronounced manner after a string of stronger-than-expected economic dat... | 1,862 |
fomc | 2,002 | How do you read the Argentinean situation? It seems to be going from one state of deterioration to the next, with the clues largely being some form of confiscation of foreign assets. That leads me to conclude that it will be difficult to get anyone to reinvest in Argentina if its leaders continue to make it terribly ob... | 115 |
fomc | 2,002 | I think you're absolutely right that there is a suppression of the exchange rate by the various rules and regulations, both formal and informal, that are being applied. How much that is suppressing the exchange rate is hard to quantify, and I wouldn't want to hazard a guess. But a lot of people in the analytical commun... | 123 |
fomc | 2,002 | If I may interject, Mr. Chairman? I would note that the one-year forward rate yesterday was 4.8 pesos per dollar. | 29 |
fomc | 2,002 | I was just about to mention that. In other words, somebody is very pessimistic at this point. What in the world does a one-year forward of, say, 5 imply about the inflation rate? We had the Brazilian experience where we were all surprised at the lack of pass-through of the exchange rate effects. Do we have any evidence... | 114 |
fomc | 2,002 | There's not enough economic activity going on in Argentina to know--even in domestic trading much less anything that would involve the purchase of imported goods and the reaction of wages or the pass-through or any of that. Ironically, the situation is so bad that it may be that what they really should do is let the in... | 135 |
fomc | 2,002 | Heaven forfend! | 6 |
fomc | 2,002 | The IMF task force that was there has gone home. They were subject to immense scrutiny in the Argentine press. Even people on the street knew the names of those on the IMF task force, which is something that is very unusual. The government in power now continues to blame others for their problems. They blame past IMF p... | 190 |
fomc | 2,002 | On second thought, maybe we ought to send you down there! [Laughter] | 17 |
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