After years of being ‘squeaky clean,’ the Federal Reserve is surrounded by controversy – By Jeff Cox (CNBC) / Sept 17 2021
- The Federal Reserve has a big meeting on tap next week, one that will be held under the cloud of an ethical dilemma.
- Reports in recent days indicate that Fed officials have been trading stocks and bonds that could be influenced at least indirectly by their decisions.
- The Fed lives on its credibility, and some of the recent problems could dent that.
The Federal Reserve has a big meeting on tap next week, one that will be held under the cloud of an ethical dilemma and will be run by a policymaking committee that finds itself with fairly pronounced divisions about the path ahead.
Markets largely expect the Fed to follow the two-day session with no major decisions, but rather just the first but significant nods that the historically easy pandemic-era accommodation is coming to an end soon if slowly.
“Tapering” will be the word of the day when the post-meeting statement is issued Wednesday, at which time individual officials also will release their forecasts on the future arc of interest rates as well as economic growth and inflation.
All of that will be set against a backdrop of controversy: News reports in recent days indicate that Fed officials have been trading stocks and bonds that could be influenced at least indirectly by their policy decisions.
