Note to Fed Governors: Put Sock In It

Sorry to go off-topic here, but it's time to razz our central money folks.  The way the Fed is communicating these days is amateurish. 

Until a month ago, most of the commentary from the Fed was Mr. Bernanke illustrating that, perhaps, his Helicopter Ben nickname was apt, and he was going to be soft on inflation.  Then it was Ben whispering sweet nothings to Maria Bartiromo. Then, in a carefully choreographed move, it was Ben and every other Fed governor suddenly shouting from the rooftops that they were going to control inflation, and to hell with the economy.  And now, with fund managers and editorialists mewling that the inhuman Fed cares more about paper and CPIs than people and jobs, the Fed governors and Ben are, haphazardly, trying to reassure us that they care about the economy, too.

To be clear, the issue is not the Fed's decision-making or Bernanke's new straight-talk express language.  It is 1) the frequency of the communications (do we really need daily updates?), 2) the multiple sources (do we really need a dozen mouthpieces?), and 3) the previous two factors combined with the media game of telephone.

A suggestion for Dr. B: Hire a good communications executive, get the Fed's communications strategy under control, and get your self-interested colleagues to stop doing Q&As.  A couple of public comments a month from you is plenty.  Why give the press and investors an opportunity to hear what they want to hear in a different Fed governor speech and Q&A a day?  The resulting cacaphony only makes the Fed look discombobulated and out of control.