A number of well-connected political operatives and staffers in Washington, D.C. reportedly received the minutes from the most recent meeting of the Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) yesterday morning instead of its planned release during the afternoon of April 10. While it's still unclear how the release took place, the publication was announced by government officials as an honest error.
The independent blogosphere was quick to pounce on the move, which some observers argued offered those with financial connections to Washington an opportunity to see the Fed's monetary policy plans before anyone else. Interestingly, the S&P 500 broke its all-time record today, hitting a level not seen since 2007 before the financial crisis began.
As for the results, the impact on bank stocks isn't terribly surprising. Most of the members of the FOMC, including Chairman Ben Bernanke, concluded that more support was needed to spur economic and employment growth.
"Several participants emphasized that the asset purchase program was effective in supporting the economic expansion, that the benefits continued to exceed the costs and that additional purchases would be necessary to achieve a substantial improvement in the outlook for the labor market," the Fed press release stated.
However, there was some dissent levied against the third iteration of quantitative easing (QE3), which involves roughly $85 billion in central bank asset purchases each month. Critics on the committee, comprised of Fed branch governors, argued that the risk of financial instability was not worth the meager gains in GDP expansion.
Today's developments show that stock and bond markets will continue to be influenced and, as some economists claim, manipulated, by Fed action. As such, investors should plan for any sudden volatility that could occur from these distortions. To learn more about wealth preservation methods, download a "Free Game Plan Report" today.