When it comes to the meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee, not all central bank policy makers are created equally. There are “participants” -- all the policy makers in the room -- and there are “members,” those who have a vote. It is important to keep this distinction in mind when reading the minutes of the FOMC meetings -- especially because many of the more hawkish members of the Fed are participants, not members. Expectations of a rate hike in March hardly budged after the release of the most recent Fed minutes. This was a key line: Participants generally indicated that their economic forecasts had ... (full story)