Some of this meeting's thunder was stolen by the last meeting, when the Fed moved to the Evans Rule sooner than had been expected. So nobody is expecting any major policy changes or innovations in the FOMC statement that will be released Wednesday. There's no presser until the March meeting. But in addition to any changes in the economic outlook, a couple of items will be worth watching. 1) Voting seats will rotate to four new district bank presidents, so we'll find out how many dissenters we have this year. See Dove, actually (the sequel) for our earlier thoughts on this year's voting membership. Just a guess, but Esther George is likely to indeed dissent, while James Bullard remains something of a wildcard. 2) A possible revision to the Statement of Longer-Run Goals and Monetary Policy Strategy, issued last January. In a sign of how drastically monetary policy changed last year, the big news at the time was that 2 per cent inflation had become an explicit longer-run goal. As for tomorrow, here are HSBC economists: The Committee could issue a revised Statement after this meeting if they felt it would be helpful to clarify how the near-term guidance for the fed funds rate meshes with the Committee's longer-run goals of 2% inflation and "maximum" employment. However, we do not think there will be any substantive changes to the Strategy statement, at least none that would have any impact on the near-term conduct of policy. And Credit Suisse: According to Fed Vice Chair Yellen, who heads the FOMC's communications subcommittee, "The intention is that the public can count on the principles expressed in the statement to remain unchanged for some time to come, even as the economic outlook changes. For that reason, the Committee sought the endorsement of all its participants-the Board members and all 12 Reserve Bank presidents-not only the voting members. As it turned out, there was one abstention last year when the "Statement of Longer-Run Goals and Monetary Policy Strategy" was unveiled. Fed Governor Tarullo "abstained because he questioned the ultimate usefulness of the statement in promoting better communication of the Committee's policy strategy. In her November speech at Berkeley, Yellen said she expects "that this "consensus statement" will be reaffirmed each January, perhaps with minor modifications but with the core principles intact." At next week's meeting, it is highly unlikely the FOMC will alter its 2% inflation target. However, there may be debate around the Committee's estimates of the long-run, nonaccelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU) or its longer-run "normal rate." Yellen addressed this possibility in her speech: "Unfortunately, there is a considerable range of disagreement in the economics profession and on the FOMC itself about what this longer-run normal rate of unemployment is. Moreover, there is widespread recognition that whatever the normal rate might be today, it can change over time. So the consensus statement notes that, as of January 2012, FOMC participants" estimates of this rate had a central tendency of 5.2 percent to 6.0 percent. I expect the FOMC to review its estimates of the longer-run normal rate of unemployment in its annual reaffirmation of the consensus statement on goals and strategy.