• Updated

The Federal Reserve has for decades moved steadily from a remote, opaque government agency that shared little about what it did or why to a more transparent institution willing to explain how it makes decisions and what it thinks about the economy. New chair Kevin Warsh has begun to reverse some of those steps because he believes that by signaling its intentions the Fed pigeonholes itself into a position on interest rates. Yet such an approach carries the risk of more violent swings in stock and bond prices, analysts say, and ultimately higher interest rates for consumers and businesses.