James B. Bullard presents this Review's annual synopsis of the recent actions of the Federal Open Market Committee, the prime policymaking group in the Federal Reserve System. Calendar 1990 was an interesting period from the perspective of monetary policy-watchers because the national economy slipped into recession in the latter half of the year, thus providing an opportunity to study policy-making during the onset of recession. In the context of a chronology, the author emphasizes some difficulties that the Committee experienced in attempting to implement its stated short-run policy goals. These include the problems of inaccurate short-term forecasting and the appropriate measurement of the policy stance.