From The Asia Times
By Julian Delasantellis

There is a story on how after famed early 19th-century German philosophy professor Friedrich Hegel finished a lecture, he took questions from his students.

“Herr doktor professor, pardon me, but your theories have no relation to the facts.” At this, Hegel slammed his fist down on the lectern. “Then, so much the worse for the facts!”

Had doctor (PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and professor (Princeton) Ben Bernanke been taking questions following Tuesday’s meeting of the Federal Reserve Board’s Open Markets Committee, the Fed chief might have faced a question like that.

“Dr Bernanke, your statement that we can soon expect ‘moderate economic growth’ has no relation to the facts.”

And in leaving US short-term interest rates unchanged, Bernanke bellowed out to the markets, and to the world economy as a whole, “so much the worse for the facts!”

For the third time since last spring, a meeting of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate setting Open Markets Committee has come and gone with short-term rates unchanged, at 2% for the Federal Funds target rate, 2.25% for the Discount Rate. This relative stability followed, from August 2007 to last April, the most aggressive pace of Federal Reserve easings in almost 30 years, with seven easings of the target rate and nine of the discount rate during that time.

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