Fed - keep dollar down to bring exports up - Do you care?

Washington - Okay, the chief strolled out into the lion's den and said he's going to keep on buying the U.S. Treasury's paper in order to keep inflation down. No other choice, his numbers say, and other words to that effect.

Then the analysts picked over Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's statement to the financial press.

Their conclusion: the top banker wants to keep the dollar's value down in an attempt to bring exports up.

How to rein the spike in gasoline prices?

You don't, said Mr. Bernanke. It doesn't work that way. Besides, he said, inflation's not a problem. It's so much not a problem that the Fed will continue to reinvest its principal payments in U.S. Treasury securities. In other words, it's going to let the dragon chase, and eat, its own tail - buying up its own debt in an endless loop.

How you like them apples, fellow housewives? Hope you have enough tiger in your tank to get to Wal-Mart this week.

Balderdash, said a top analyst - a qualified economist. If you want to bring gasoline costs down, stimulate a "dramatic rise" in the worth of the dollar. Somebody's making a buck. Do you ever wonder just who that may be?

It's safe to say that the bond traders are having a field day keeping up with all the transactions the Fed's decision spark in buying U.S. Treasury Bonds. Their commissions keep pace with the volatility of that market, after all.

About the worth of the dollar. It tanked in 2008 and has stayed somewhat level since then.

We aren't getting anywhere.

To whom does this bring all the grief? A glib CBS personality talking out her talking head, said Wal-Mart won't be all that charmed, since the outfit buys all its stuff in China to re-sell to Billy Bob and Becky Sue throughout the known boundaries of our world - the U.S.A. - wall to wall and treetop tall.

She asked, does this really make any difference - if you don't travel overseas?

Nah, lady, your cash ain't nothing but trash, anyway. Just cut out those plans for a junior year abroad and your April in Paris. Things will be fine.

The next big question is simple enough, but filled with drama.

After all the hell the new conservative super majority raised, will they turn around and vote to raise that stratospheric $14.3 trillion debt ceiling?

It's a fair question. If they don't, they could run out of money and it would be the first time the nation has had that little problem. Like the fellow said, it would be just like going into a fancy restaurant, ordering and consuming a fine meal, then arguing over the check - like - you are refusing to pay the tab.

Yeah.

"Raising the debt ceiling is an arcane problem that stems from a quirk of our political system. The United States requires one vote to pass a budget and another to issue the debt necessary to finance it. That second vote has not yet happened. If it doesn't, or if it fails, the federal government will run out of money, which has never happened before. The consequences, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has warned, would be 'catastrophic,''' according to Joshua Green, senior editor of "The Atlantic."

In an official statement, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said, “Never in our history has Congress failed to increase the debt limit when necessary. Failure to raise the limit would precipitate a default by the United States. Default would effectively impose a significant and long-lasting tax on all Americans and all American businesses and could lead to loss of millions of American jobs. Even a very short-term or limited default would have catastrophic economic consequences that would last for decades.”

Ultra-conservative House Speaker John Boehner, propelled to his position by adroit maneuvering on behalf of the Republican National Congressional Committee in the elections of 2010, is making no promises, one way or the other.

A co-author of New Gingrich's "Contract With America," he told reporters there's a chance the vote could be delayed or that it won't happen at all "if the President doesn't get serious about our fiscal nightmare" and address GOP concerns about money matters.

Here's the official video of just about as serious as a heart attack, folks. Dig what the man says. It's good for some laughs.