Bernanke Fed a fool in the shower?

Just read the best column out there on yesterday's FOMC meeting from the great bond market and Fed commentator Caroline Baum over at Bloomberg. In it, she compares the lag of Fed monetary policy effects with the fool who turns on the shower at the right temperature, jumps in to realize the shower is too cold and then cranks up the hot water, only to burn himself "with a predictable lag".

She also looks at how the Fed has painted itself into a corner and risks losing its credibility if it is forced to change its promised policy precisely because it has been so accommodating that it ends up encouraging too much speculation. The last and best paragraph of the column we provide here:

Two policy makers -- no names were attached to the forecasts -- expect the funds rate to first begin rising in 2016. ... That would mean eight years of 0 percent interest rates. There will be a revolution in this country before then if the economy is lousy enough to warrant 0 percent interest rates for that long. Even the fool in the shower knows that.

Full column: "Fool in the shower" to Give Fed a Good Scalding