Allan, I’ll second that, about Bernanke and his right arm. (But is he left-handed?) He and others are constantly coming up with ways to explain why inflation higher than the goals is not important.
If we were in his shoes, what would we do? Maybe the same thing. After all, who wants to be held responsible for the inevitable deep recession that would follow from a clear break with the credit-fueled boom of the last 5 years? Maybe we kinda suspect that such a recession is inevitable, but maybe we’d prefer to explore for as long as possible the idea that the good times can last forever, or at least ease off gently. And if we do have to have a recession, then we’d probably prefer that someone else gets blamed.
