As Bernanke & Co prime the pump for the next financial disaster, I cannot think of a more damning indictment of the way monetary policy has been run in this country over the past few decades than this graph.  It is the real Fed Funds rate, or the Fed Funds target less CPI.

Since 2000, the real Fed Funds rate has been below zero an astonishing 45% of the time.  The average rate has been 0.16%.   

Bernanke claims that the Fed bears no responsibility for the Housing Bubble, at least as it pertains to the operations of the Federal Open Market Committee.  Such stunning cluelessness gives investors no confidence in the authorities' ability to not destroy it's citizens wealth.

Marx said that history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. Twelve years into the asset-driven economy, we are now in the stage of multiple farce.