CBO: Stimulus added up to 3.3 million jobs

If "the administration was pretty certain Bernanke was not planning to raise rates," it was because Bernanke exists to do the bidding of the politicians who control him. The Federal Reserve is independent in name only. We get sold on the Fed being this independent organization that acts according to mystical formulas. And that they can create prosperity without effects. They pretend as if they can dribble a football with monetary policy. In actuality, the are attempting to dribble time bombs.

If economic conditions dictate monetary policy -- and not politics (as in, create an economic boom without thought about a huge bust or crash. ... or reduce how much the debt we are racking up by inflating it) -- no one would be able to be pretty certain about what the Fed would do. And honestly, interest rates right now would be much higher right now than they are because the Fed would be way more concerned about debasing the dollar, which is the only thing that keeps faith in this country and allows it to lend. The Fed has actually convinced people that a PERMANENT low rate policy is the answer to ANY economic condition. When the economy is doing great, rates are kept low. When the economy tanks, they are reduced as far as they can bring them down. In reality, it is just them trying to bail out politicians with lax monetary policy -- creating false prosperity to make politicians popular ortrying to inflate away the effects of politicians fiscal spending when the bubble the Fed has created with it's permapolicy of printing money pops.

The Federal Reserve is a secret organization that is not subject to oversight and acts without transparency. Monetary policy, as done by the Fed, is always about either overheating the economy because politicians get reelected that way or inflating away the debt that politicians create at the expense of American's standard of living.

Ben Bernanke is a political tool, though. When he was reappointed, he wasn't particularly well loved and he was being criticized for not anticipating the financial meltdown. Obama made him come begging for the reappointment. If there was ever a show of who the ultimate pupper master is, that was it. There is nothing independent about the Fed. The independence nonsense just creates some shroud of mysticism around what they do (and allows them to create half of our problems), and allows them to act in secrecy without oversight.