On CNBC Wednesday morning, I predicted that the FOMC minutes would be “much shorter and with fewer details.” Steve Liesman pushed back, arguing that the minutes are a committee document. (So is the FOMC statement, and it still got hacked in half, even deleting “maximum employment.”) In the end, the minutes came in about a fifth shorter, so I was right on length, but the substance was preserved. Steve got that right, thankfully. There was as much information as usual on the debate among Fed officials at the meeting. Most importantly, we learned why the Fed held rates steady in June, despite headline inflation twice ... (full story)