on human judgment. but this judgmental forecast is informed by sophisticated econometric models. the staff ’ s core, large - scale structural model has been dubbed frb / us - pronounced “ ferbus. ” but that model is not the only one the staff uses. indeed, the staff uses its suite of smaller - scale models to probe the vulnerabilities of the core model. but as seductive as modeling is to us economists, we must remember that no model can fully capture a dynamic, ever - evolving economy such as ours. thus, the staff ’ s forecast, and i ’ m sure the individual forecasts of each fomc member, are in the end judgmental assessments. after the greenbook session, the director of the board ’ s division of monetary affairs briefs the committee on the bluebook, a document that presents policy options, usually two or three, for the committee ’ s consideration and that offers arguments for and against each course of action. not a recommendation from the staff, the briefing is instead a vehicle against which fomc members can test their own thinking. finally, after hours of discussion and analysis, the chairman speaks on the policy choice for the first time. until this point, his participation in the meeting has usually been limited to questions and to comments aimed at keeping the meeting moving. after the chairman makes his recommendation, fomc members react in the second go - round. then we vote, and by then it is usually about one o ’ clock and time for lunch. about an hour later, at around quarter after two, a statement publicly announces our decision. as currently formulated, the announcement has four parts : the first states the target for the federal funds rate ; the second briefly explains the committee ’ s analysis of current economic conditions ; the third provides the committee ’ s assessment of the risks to price stability and economic growth ; and the last provides committee members ’ votes. the statement is a relatively recent innovation ; it is about a decade old and, over that period, it has evolved from a quite terse missive to the almost loquacious form it takes today. before the advent of fomc statements, market observers had to infer shifts in monetary policy by watching the new york fed ’ s open market operations. the fomc statement, as well as more - detailed minutes released about six to seven weeks after each meeting, twice - a - year reports to the congress on monetary policy, and audits by outside

edward m gramlich : workplace financial education remarks by mr edward m gramlich, member of the board of governors of the us federal reserve system, at the second meeting of the financial literacy and education commission, washington, dc, 20 may 2004. * * * the federal reserve system has a long history as a promoter and provider of consumer education. an increasingly complex global financial system requires consumers to have a strong working knowledge of financial concepts. to highlight the importance of financial education and to make people aware of the multitude of financial education resources that are available to them, the federal reserve system launched a national public campaign that began in may 2003. but before we launched a public campaign, we began putting together a serious program of workplace education for our own board employees. in november 2002, we sponsored a roundtable with fifteen to twenty employers that we identified as having active workplace education programs. attendees, representing reserve banks, private corporations, and government agencies, discussed goals, plans, and how to get started. this group suggested some key features that we built into our own program. one was to make financial education a lifetime responsibility, for us and our employees. another was to keep information current, relevant, and responsive to changing conditions. a third was to provide information through a range of vehicles. from this session we gathered information on best practices and formed an internal task force to plan, coordinate, and evaluate these efforts. the task force developed ongoing objectives for the program that include • increasing employees ’ understanding of how board - sponsored benefit programs can contribute to short - and long - term financial well - being, • improving employees ’ knowledge of basic financial concepts and improving their capability to make personal finance decisions, • encouraging employees to adopt financial management behaviors that will help them increase their short - and long - term savings and better manage or eliminate debt, and • evaluating the impact of workplace financial education on participation in board benefit programs and financial behavior through appropriate metrics. to carry out our objectives, we use a variety of methods. we host lunch - time seminars, offer morning or afternoon programs, and place articles and educational materials on our internal electronic newsletter. we are also developing an internal web site designed to improve employees ’ knowledge of finance, benefits, health, and career development issues. our programs and educational materials cover a variety of topics. “ making sense of your credit report ” provides information on the factors that can positively or negatively affect a credit report. “ college savings : making education your financial goal ” discusses education as a