The Federal Reserve on Thursday released its transcripts of the meetings of its policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee held in 1998, 1980 and 1979.
While the central bank releases FOMC meeting "minutes" with a six-week lag, they are of limited use to analysts because of their often vague and stilted language.
The transcripts, however, are intended to be verbatim accounts of the meetings, and often provide useful historical information.
They are released with a five-year lag. In recent years, the Fed has also released transcripts from further back than five years.