Everyone knows that the FOMC announcement, due today at 2 pm, will be the culmination of an orderly, traditional 2-day meeting which started yesterday, April 29.

What few know, however, is that in addition to the generic FOMC meeting which started yesterday at 10:30 am, at about the same time, the Fed also held an "expedited" emergency meeting between the four board governors Yellen, Tarullo, Stein, and Powell.

As the WSJ adds, "The four members of the board met to discuss "medium-term monetary policy issues," according to a meeting notice posted on the Fed's website.... A Fed spokesman declined to say if the two meetings were combined, or how long the board meeting lasted." The WSJ also notes that the "last time the Fed board met to discuss "medium-term monetary policy issues" was on April 26, 2011, according to analysts at BNP Paribas."

The notice:

So what was discussed? We won't know because the "meeting was closed to public observation by Order of the Board of Governors because the matters fall under exemption(s) 9(A)(i) of the Government in the Sunshine Act (5 U.S.C. Section 552b(c)), and it was determined that the public interest did not require opening the meeting."

Ironic, because nothing the Fed does is in the public interest. Or, to be specific, 99% of the public...