Helicopter Ben's Escape Plan

Ben's talking about pulling the Fed out of the "supporting our broken economy" business as part of our coming austerity measures, and the markets are not happy.

"These programs, which imposed no cost on the taxpayer, were a critical part of the government's efforts to stabilize the financial system and restart the flow of credit," Bernanke said in prepared testimony for a House Financial Services Committee hearing that was postponed due to snow. "As financial conditions have improved, the Federal Reserve has substantially phased out these lending programs."

But Bernanke also emphasized that the U.S. economy still needs the "support of highly accommodative monetary policies." He said that "at some point" in the future the Fed will "need to tighten financial conditions" by raising short-term interest rates and reversing programs that pumped liquidity into the markets.

The markets have been waiting to hear an inkling of how the Fed plans to start raising short-term interest rates and pulling back on the trillions the Fed has pumped into the financial system, since it started teetering on the edge of collapse back in late 2008.

The markets are unhappy because you and me are supposed to be experiencing austerity measures, not our precious corporate oligarchs.  Dow dropped 200 as a result, but have gradually risen back to positive territory on the realization that Helicopter Ben can't actually do this in an election year.

So, everyone's breathing a sigh of relief.  The reinflation of the bubble continues unabated.