Think back to where you were during the Enron scandal. It has been eleven years since the day that scandal broke, and we’ve come a long way in terms of the transparency expected from corporations and the ethics of financial management. But now here we are in 2012, and still the nation’s largest financial institution, The Federal Reserve, is perhaps the least transparent of all—until now.
Federal Reserve Vice-Chair Janet Yellen, who is rumored to be Ben Bernanke’s successor as the Federal Reserve Chair in 2014, delivered a speech at the University of California this week focusing on the Fed’s efforts to improve their communications strategies. She emphasized the increasingly familiar term of Forward Guidance, which she defines as “communications about the future course of monetary policy”.
Part of what has driven this generation’s push for transparency is the ease with which we can now exchange information and ideas. It has become a public relations staple to ensure that a company collects feedback from all its employees—top to bottom, as well as its stakeholders—to really understand how to overcome obstacles and grow as a unit. Ms. Yellen is pushing for something similar at the Federal Reserve.
Following his annual meeting with Berkshire Hathaway investors over the weekend, Warren Buffett 
I know we all have regulatory fatigue and the last thing we want is another rule. However, this is one we can all agree on. And by “we” I mean IR practitioners and Wall Street. My proposed rule seeks to officially end the practice of companies attempting to bury bad news late on a Friday, or worse, over the weekend. This tactic never works and never has. Companies that use this tactic only succeed in unnecessarily angering their core constituents. If the news is material enough that it warrants an 8-K, and you have flexibility as to when to make the filing, don’t get cute and do it after market on a Friday.
What a week is an understatement, from LinkedIn to LockedUp, with DSK and 
