MNI BRIEF: Fed Should Add Detail To Policy Decisions- Bernanke

The Federal Reserve should provide detailed background information bearing on its policy decisions at the time those decisions are announced, former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke said Friday in a proposal to improve central bank communications.

This could take the form of a quarterly Monetary Policy Report, a document currently prepared ahead of Chair Jerome Powell's biannual testimony to Congress, and include staff forecasts and discussions of alternate economic scenarios, Bernanke told Fed policymakers at a Fed Board conference on revisions to the central bank's policymaking framework.   

Currently, Fed policy decisions come with relatively little economic context or explanation, other than the quarterly Summary of Economic Projections and the chair's answers at a press conference. But the SEP has "a lot of problems," including that the dot plot creates "de facto forward guidance" without allowing for uncertainty and alternate scenarios, Bernanke said. (See: MNI INTERVIEW: Limits To Comms Benefits From Fed Scenarios)