Ben Bernanke Came Out Guns Blazing

Matthew Boesler * Business Insider

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is pictured on a video camera display during a news conference following the Fed’s two-day policy meeting at the Federal Reserve in Washington, June 19, 2013.

Today, most were expecting Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to attempt to soothe markets.

After all, volatility in the Treasury market, caused by uncertainties surrounding how soon the Fed will begin to taper the pace of its bond-buying program, has had earthshaking reverberations around the world. (Volatility in the Japanese government bond market has increased dramatically, and emerging market stocks, bonds, and currencies have been getting crushed as Treasury yields have risen in the States.)

Instead, Bernanke and the Fed did just the opposite. The FOMC revised up its economic forecasts – implying a quicker economic recovery, meaning tapering is closer than previously assumed – and even laid out a roadmap for tapering, saying bond buying could be completely finished by mid-2014.

This development wasn’t even borne out of the discussion in the Q&A with reporters – Bernanke had it ready to go in his prepared remarks to launch the presser. Guns blazing.