The Fed's Misunderstood Dots

Every three months, the U.S. Federal Reserve publishes a chart -- known as the "dot plot" -- showing where various officials think the central bank's interest-rate target should be over the next few years. And every three months, investors and the media consistently misinterpret it. A couple changes could make this widely followed monetary-policy tool a lot more useful. The dot plot has two big perception problems. The first is the belief that it reflects officials' interest-rate forecasts. It doesn't. Rather, it shows what each participant thinks the ... READ MORE