The Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is responsible for setting monetary policies of the United States to influence the availability and cost of money and credit to help promote national economic goals. It consists of twelve members - the seven members of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the five presidents of the Federal Reserve Banks all across the country. The goals of FOMC are to maximize employment rates, stabilize prices, and moderate long-term interest rates for the country. Oftentimes, the members of the committee are unanimous in their support for a policy. But dissenting votes are cast — more than 450 over three-quarters of a century, with an uptick in the past several years. So what prompts a dissent? Have such votes been more common in one era or another? Is one type of member more likely than another to dissent?
Important Events of FOMC
1933
FOMC established
1935
Fed’s Board of Governors added to FOMC
1955
FOMC increased the number of meetings per year
1960s and 1970s
Increasing disagreement about the causes and costs of inflation, and the tradeoff between inflation and unemployment
Early 1980s
FOMC began to hold eight meetings per year, which last until this day
