Federal Reserve FOMC Meeting Schedule 2013-2014

As a service to Money Morning readers, we are providing the Federal Reserve FOMC meeting schedule.

The U.S. Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is a 12-member board within the Federal Reserve system that meets eight times a year to set policy.

In addition to the regularly scheduled meetings, the FOMC can call other meetings as needed. The minutes of a regularly scheduled FOMC meetingare released three weeks after the date of the policy decision.

The FOMC consists of twelve members -- the seven members of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; and four of the remaining eleven Reserve Bank presidents, who serve one-year terms on a rotating basis. The rotating seats are filled from the following four groups of Banks, one Bank president from each group: Boston, Philadelphia, and Richmond; Cleveland and Chicago; Atlanta, St. Louis, and Dallas; and Minneapolis, Kansas City, and San Francisco. Nonvoting Reserve Bank presidents attend the meetings of the Committee, participate in the discussions, and contribute to the Committee's assessment of the economy and policy options.

At the eight scheduled FOMC meetings, the Committee reviews economic and financial conditions, determines the appropriate stance of monetary policy, and assesses the risks to its long-run goals of price stability and sustainable economic growth.

What Happens at an FOMC Meeting

The FOMC is responsible for carrying out the "dual mandate" given to the Federal Reserve by Congress - to encourage maximum employment and to maintain stable prices.

The FOMC's primary tool for implementing its dual mandate is the Fed Funds Rate -- the interest rate that banks charge each other for overnight loans needed to meet reserve balances.

At the regularly scheduled FOMC meetings, the board members discuss whether to raise, lower, or keep steady the Fed Funds Rate.

The Fed raises interest rates when it feels that inflation is too high, and lowers them when it feels that the U.S. economy is underperforming. Higher interest rates discourage borrowing and help keep the economy from overheating. Lower interest rates mean that consumers and businesses can borrow more cheaply, which encourages spending.

But the Fed Funds rate also serves as a guide for other types of interest rates that affect consumers, such as mortgage rates and bank loan rates.

Wall Street keeps a close eye on FOMC meetings, as changes in the Fed Funds rate can serve as a barometer for the direction of the economy.

Investors also like to parse the FOMC's statement, as it always contains a high-level analysis of the U.S. economy that includes forecasts.

Even Americans who do little investing are affected by the FOMC meetings, as the Fed Funds Rate ultimately can affect the value of your retirement portfolio, the value of your home (and how much you pay for it), your borrowing costs, the rate of inflation, and more.

Interested in more on the secret, market-moving entity that is the Fed? Don't miss 5 Things the Federal Reserve Hopes You'll Never Find Out

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• Federal Reserve.gov:
  About the FOMC

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Credit: Money Morning - Only the News You Can Profit From http://moneymorning.com/2013/06/18/federal-reserve-fomc-meeting-schedule-2013-2014/