At the Fed, a Power Struggle Over Information
Early this year a tremor shook the Federal Reserve BoardÛªs headquarters on Constitution Avenue: All four of the Fed's then-governors met with Chairman Alan Greenspan to insist that they be told what he and the staff were doing about a wide range of international economic matters, including contacts with foreign central banks.</br></br>The four board members were not complaining about policy. Rather, they were frustrated that no one was keeping them adequately informed about the staffs activities, including discussions with the Treasury Department and research on internation- al financial issues. Two of the four also grumbled later about being excluded from the staffÛªs preparation of domestic economic forecasts.</br></br>Such complaints almost never surface at the central bank. Powerful chairmen have run the show for at least the last half century, with the staff as their strong right arm.</br></br>Each governor, as board members are called, has one vote on policy matters, as does the chairman. But traditionally the chairman speaks for the institution and opposition to his view is not a small matter.</br></br>Historically, the lines of power at the Fed have been so .clear that some years ago a departing senior staff member said he never had an interest in