At the bottom of yesterday's press release from the Federal Open Market Committee was this piece of information:
...the Committee unanimously decided to expedite the release of its minutes. Beginning with this meeting, the minutes of regularly scheduled meetings will be released three weeks after the date of the policy decision. The first set of expedited minutes will be released at 2 p.m. EST on January 4, 2005.
Before now, the minutes of a particular meeting were not released until after the subsequent meeting, so the information contained therein was somewhat moot. The change in communication policy received scant attention in the press, but in the long run it may very well be more important news than that 25 basis points.