The Fed's chairman has asked his colleagues whether the Committee should meet six times a year instead of eight

Kevin Warsh spent the July meeting on the same question everyone else did, which was what to do about inflation. Then he asked a different one.

The minutes released on Wednesday record the Chairman putting the meeting calendar itself to the Committee. Six scheduled meetings a year, held roughly every two months, would let more information accumulate between meetings than current practice allows, and would give policymakers and staff more time for strategic questions. He asked colleagues for their views. No decision was made.

The setup for it sits in the sentence immediately before. Various participants had noted that their assessments of the economy were little changed given the short interval between the June and July meetings. Those two meetings were six weeks apart. On the Committee's own account, six weeks had produced little new to think about.

What eight meetings is, and is not

The eight meeting year is practice rather than law. The Federal Reserve Act requires the Committee to meet in Washington at least four times each year, on the call of the chairman of the Board of Governors or at the request of any three members. Six would sit comfortably above that floor. So would the current eight.

The Fed's published calendar for 2026 carries eight meetings, of which three are left: 15 to 16 September, 27 to 28 October, and 8 to 9 December. Four of the eight carry a Summary of Economic Projections, and September and December are two of them. The Chairman said any change in practice would not affect the schedule over the balance of this year.

Why it is worth reading twice

A central bank that meets less often is a central bank that commits to each decision for longer. Every scheduled meeting is also a scheduled opportunity to change course, and removing two of them a year lengthens the period in which a policy stance stands unrevisited.

The minutes do not say who supported the idea, who resisted it, or whether anything else on the calendar would move with it. They record a question and the absence of an answer. That is worth knowing about a Committee whose own minutes, in the same discussion, show many participants expecting that tightening will be necessary if inflation does not fall.