An interesting piece in the NYT: how the Federal Reserve is moving to communication as the core of its strategy to steer the US economy.

More, and more bastions of corporate waffling are being torn down as journalists, analysts, bloggers, and the audience itself becomes more ruthless in cutting to the chase of what is actually being said.

Historically, there were probably two reasons for people to waffle:

1. Status: lawyers, politicians, doctors, scientists, priests, CEOs used their jargons to re-emphasize their authority towards us, the ignorant masses.
2. Cover up: if you get an unexpected question, waffling is the default strategy to gain time