Actor Bernanke Stars in QE3- The Helicopter Frontier

Fed Ready to Act, but Not Now, Bernanke Says - NYTimes.com: "Bernanke Says Fed Would Consider New Stimulus
By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, gave a subdued account of the economy’s health Wednesday and said that the Fed was prepared to expand its economic aid campaign once again, if necessary, though such a step was not imminent.

Less than a month has passed since Mr. Bernanke said at a press conference that the central bank intended to stand back and take the measure of the nation’s sluggish recovery. Wednesday’s remarks amounted to acknowledgment that so far, the news has been almost uniformly bad.

“I think we have to keep all the options on the table,” Mr. Bernanke said in testimony before the House Financial Services Committee. “We don’t know where the economy is going to go.”

He described options, including a public commitment to maintain existing aid programs for a longer period, new asset purchases to drive down interest rates, or steps to encourage banks to withdraw money kept on reserve at the Fed and use it to make loans."