Consequences of the Federal Reserve's Re-attachment to Free Reserves

Eighteen years ago, at these meetings, Karl Brunner and I presented a preliminary version of our study of the Federal Reserve system that was then in process.1 At the time, there was much less public and professional scrutiny of Federal Reserve decisions and actions. Minutes were not released; money targets were not announced; there were no regularly scheduled oversight hearings; and the weekly or monthly data on the money stock were not the subject of widespread speculation and comment.