Fed Trims Rate Meetings, Putting Warsh's Quiet Style to the Test

Federal Reserve officials will vote on interest rates next month without the newest inflation reading, which lands the day after they finalize their decision. That timing leaves them guessing whether November price pressures kept climbing or started to cool. It is exactly the gap the central bank's new meeting plan is meant to close.

Under a revised schedule released Thursday, policymakers will gather eight times in 2027, with the Oct. 25-26 session set aside for discussing broad monetary policy strategy rather than voting. By 2028, only six meetings will carry policy votes, alongside two strategy-focused sessions. The shift rolls out gradually, starting next fall.

The plan comes from Kevin M. Warsh, the Fed chairman, and officials broadly appear on board. Spacing meetings more evenly gives policymakers a steadier stream of economic data to work with when they debate rate settings. The trade-off is that Warsh will carry more of the burden of explaining how the Fed reads the economy and reaches its rate calls, something he has so far resisted even as the central bank has begun raising rates this year.

Esther George, who led the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City from 2011 to 2023, framed the problem as one of clarity rather than calendar. “The decision process is more important than the timing,” she said. “And this committee is struggling a bit with how to communicate what exactly they mean.”