Ben "Mr. Confidence" Bernanke: Inflation outlook is "highly uncertain." USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Bernanke says inflation outlook "uncertain"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080822/bs_nm/usa_fed_dc;_ylt=AoDb7Gwan0nNNaj41f.muFxZ.3QA



JACKSON HOLE, Wyoming (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Friday said the stronger dollar and lower oil prices, along with the weak economy, should curb inflation, in a hint that interest rates would stay on hold, though he warned the inflation outlook is "highly uncertain."

Bernanke called a recent decline in commodity prices and stabilization of the U.S. dollar "encouraging."

"If not reversed, these developments, together with a pace of growth that is likely to fall short of potential for a time, should lead inflation to moderate later this year and next," he told a Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

The dollar trimmed gains against the euro as investors bet that Bernanke's remarks were evidence of little inclination at the U.S. central bank to raise rates while markets remained strained and growth challenged by the housing contraction.

[bluestateguy]

1. This wouldn't have happened if we had followed President Ford's Whip Inflation Now program

[gratuitous]

2. Dirty Duck, National Lampoon

We're gonna whip inflation now
We'll all eat crow instead of cow
We'll even starve to death and how
So we can whip inflation now!

[onethatcares]

3. I have one of those buttons, along with

a Geraldine Ferraro for vice president bumper sticker. Along with a few other odds and ends.

[JDPriestly]

4. Low interest rates combined with high inflation eat away savings.

That combination hurts the elderly and others who rely on interest from savings for their living in whole or in part. Stock market investments aren't really paying off either. Housing prices are down. Not a good time for the elderly who do not have pensions. This is a foretaste of the reality that Baby Boomers will face unless we get a government that is serious about getting our economy moving and fighting inflation with higher interest rates.