Bernanke: We'll raise rates when necessary (which won't be anytime soon)

Investors may be forgiven if they had deja vu all over again when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave a luncheon speech at The Economic Club of Washington, D.C. on Monday. After all, the Fed chairman said pretty much the same thing three weeks ago in a luncheon speech at The Economic Club of New York. The recovery remains fragile and will be moderate at best. Unemployment will stay depressingly high. And as for inflation, well, it's nowhere to be seen.

So is a bubble-busting short-term rate hike coming sooner than expected, as Wall Street freaked out about Friday? The answer is still No, despite November's unemployment report coming in shockingly better than expected.