Bernanke Finds A Brick Wall And Pushes Ahead

Our esteemed chairman is currently displaying his wisdom in Congress.  He just said that the Fed is ready

"...to take additional steps to boost U.S. growth..."

Which implies that he chooses not to boost growth at this time? Does he think the economy is growing too fast?

 Defending his latest policy he said that Operation Twist

“should put downward pressure on longer-term interest rates and help make broader financial conditions more supportive of economic growth than they would otherwise have been,”

 Which is a masterful display of sophistry since otherwise have been refers to an alternative reality that can never be measured.    For instance, I could say that broader financial conditions are exactly the same as they would be without Operation Twist and Bernanke cannot prove that I am wrong (I can assure you that I am wrong since nothing is ever exactly the same to an alternative reality).  Furthermore, the conditional should, at the beginning of the statement ensures that Ben wins the argument anyway.

How about the actual economy?

“The recovery from the crisis has been much less robust than we had hoped,”

Wait! I thought his policies were working.  If they haven't worked, how does he know future ones will work? Also, "hoped" is not exactly what we call hard science, either he knows or he doesn't.  Which one is it?

'...Housing, which had been a “significant driver of recovery from most recessions” in the U.S. since World War II, is now among industries contributing to the “slower-than-expected rate of expansion,” Bernanke said....'

Thanks to whom? Will Bernanke ever acknowledge that the Greenspan team, which included Ben as well as Tim Geithner, pumped the housing market to the point of exhaustion? Also, did he actually think housing would lead this "recovery?" (The potential answers to that one are right down scary)

There is nothing more dangerous than a powerful man (there are no checks, short of impeachment, on the Fed chairman) who has fallen prisoner of a theory (economics is hardly an exact science).   Either he is lying or he believes the nonsensical proposition that he can reignite growth by driving record low rates even lower.  At this point, we hope he is lying.  The alternative is scarier.