Morning Must-Read: Barry Eichengreen: The Fed Under Fire

…their decisions are still not well understood and that officials must do more to explain them…. Fed officials should avoid weighing in on issues that are only obliquely related to monetary policy…. Fed officials should acknowledge that at least some of the critics’ suggestions have merit. For example, eliminating commercial banks’ right to select a majority of each Reserve Bank’s board would be a useful step in the direction of greater openness and diversity. The Federal Reserve System has always been a work in progress. What the US needs now is progress in the right direction.