"Whenever Alan Greenspan was praised for delivering a clear message on US monetary policy, he liked to reply: “If you think that, you have misunderstood what I said”. Ben Bernanke prefers the opposite approach, trying to explain in painstaking detail the precise conditions and possible timing of monetary tapering. He might do the world’s economy, and his own reputation, a favour by imitating Greenspan’s obfuscation…"