What Happens At a Fed Meeting?
6 minutes ago
The Federal Reserve Open Markets Committee will make monetary policy decisions today and is widely expected to cut its influential fed funds rate by a quarter of a point.
The Federal Open Market Committee, also known as the FOMC, is the body that sets the fed funds rate for the Federal Reserve System, the United States’ central bank. It holds eight regularly scheduled meetings each year, which are not open to the public. The Fed’s use of interest rates to influence the economy is called monetary policy.
The FOMC consists of 12 voting members: the seven board governors, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York president, and four other regional bank presidents who serve rotating one-year terms.
At each FOMC meeting, the committee members discuss economic and financial conditions and decide whether and how much to change the fed funds rate. The FOMC issues a public statement about its decision at 2 p.m. on Wednesday when the meeting concludes. The Fed chair, currently Jerome Powell, typically hosts a press conference afterward to explain the decision.
To read more about what goes on behind closed doors at the FOMC meetings, click here.