Kevin Warsh aspires to be a Federal Reserve chair of few words. He doesn’t think the central bank should provide as much “forward guidance” about the path of interest rates as it has in recent years. He believes Fed policymakers should give fewer speeches and possibly hold fewer meetings. He wants the institution to own fewer assets and to leave a lighter footprint on the economy.

There are good arguments for this humble approach, but that silence could have a cost: Markets won’t know what to expect from Warsh and his colleagues in the future, which might undermine the credibility of the policies they’re pursuing today. When the Fed raised interest rates on Wednesday for the first time in three years, the yield on Treasury bonds rose, too: a sign, as economic analyst Marcus Nunes wrote, that markets doubt the Fed’s commitment to keep rates high enough for long enough to bring inflation back down to its target of 2 percent a year.

Thinking bigger might help the Fed’s communications. Some economists have for years advocated that the Federal Reserve adopt a nominal spending target. Their main argument is that this approach would better stabilize the economy and also allow the central bank to convey what it needs without any hint of micromanagement.

Under the new target, the Fed would........

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