As Jamie mentions in his wrap below, Mr Bernanke will be talking on Friday at the Boston Fed when he is expected to put some meat on the QE2 bones. Comments from Kocherlakota and from Hoenig earlier in the week certainly do put some doubt in my mind as to what or how much the Fed will do and with Chinese tensions on the rise, there is a very fine line that needs to be walked.

  • Do too much and cause a further extensive run on the USD (maybe this is really what the Fed wants)
  • Do nothing and run the risk of the economy sliding sharply south but keeping in mind that the positive economic effects of any QE2 may well be marginal at best

Helicopter Ben’s famous juggling act makes its appearance at 12:15 GMT.