The art of decoding FOMC minutes amid Fed transparency

Washington

LIKE fresh scraps of meat for a pack of hungry wolves, minutes of Federal Reserve policy meetings are tossed to central bank watchers every six weeks. They arrive three weeks after each session of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) and, at first blush, appear to be a thorough and straightforward record of the to-and-fro that precedes each important move at the Fed.

Don't be fooled, say some former officials who used to help produce the documents.

As you scour the next set of minutes on Wednesday for clues to the timing of the first interest rate increase since 2006, it will take…