“Whoopsy-daisy!”
I am not one to get wrapped up in macro or conspiracy theories, but this one sure smells like a rat.
Bank lobbyists and congressional staff received potentially market-moving Federal Reserve information 19 hours before the public in a release the central bank called accidental.
Brian Gross, a member of the Fed’s congressional liaison staff, distributed the March 19-20 minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting at 2 p.m. yesterday Washington time, according to an e-mail obtained by Bloomberg News. Gross referred questions to Fed spokeswoman Michelle Smith.
The release to more than 100 people was “entirely accidental,” Smith said. “This was a list of professional contacts that one individual had,” she said. “This group of individuals does not in any normal course receive any information early.” The mistake was discovered this morning, according to the central bank.
Fed minutes, which include comments on the committee’s discussions about the direction of monetary policy and its outlook for the economy, are among the Fed’s most closely scrutinized documents as the panel debates when to stop its third round of bond purchases.
Also see Jeff Carter’s great post up today on the subject.
Oh, and remember this?
I’m not one to get worked up easily, but this kind of stuff drives me absolutely nuts.
Interesting. I would love to see someone create an index that tracks buys/sells of our elected leaders in the Senate and Congress.
Gross should be fired. Then staffers will not be so inclined to make such “mistakes” again.