Meetings of the Federal Reserve Board in its ornate Washington, DC boardroom are open to the public, though with limited seating. Now, for the first time, the Fed is set to invite in anyone with an Internet connection.
The Fed says a live webcast of its December 16 open meeting will be available on the board’s website, www.federalreserve.gov. “At the meeting, which is scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m. EST, the Board will discuss proposed rules governing debit card interchange fees and routing. This will be the first time the Board has webcast one of its meetings. The Board has previously webcast other public events such as Chairman Bernanke’s town hall meeting with educators and a conference on addressing issues facing small businesses,” said Friday’s announcement.
RBR-TVBR observation: We attended a Fed meeting many years ago. Don’t expect any exciting video. Fed meetings are a lot more like a corporate board meeting than a congressional committee hearing – real discussion, not posturing. Nonetheless, we applaud the Fed for making its activities more transparent to the US public.
