Up until recently, the U.S. central bank appeared steadfast on a benchmark of 6.5% before it began normalizing its target for short-term interest rates from the near-zero current level. The zero-bound has been in place since the darkest days of the financial crisis that exploded in 2008.
That commitment to concrete targets for policy change has changed recently, however.
The unemployment rate has been on a steady downward trajectory, though the October reading showed a slight uptick to 7.3%. But it has been doing so in great part due to the shrinking labor force.
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At the same time, inflation has remained muted despite the Fed pumping $85 billion a month in liquidity under its quantitative easing bond-buying program.
So with actual job creation still fairly muted and inflation—at least as gauged through conventional government measures—well below the Fed's 2.5% warning sign, interest rates probably aren't going anywhere for years.
Bernanke said as much Tuesday in remarks at the National Economists Club annual dinner in Washington.
He warned against using the headline unemployment measure as a gauge because "many other indicators become relevant to a comprehensive judgment of the health of the labor market, including such measures as payroll employment, labor force participation, and the rates of hiring and separation.
"In particular, even after unemployment drops below 6.5%, and so long as inflation remains well behaved," he continued, "the (Fed Open Markets) Committee can be patient in seeking assurance that the labor market is sufficiently strong before considering any increase in its target for the federal funds rate."
Economists at Goldman S! achs have been monitoring the internal Fed analyses over what would constitute a safe unemployment rate, and said in a paper published Tuesday that the threshold is probably 5.5%. That analysis is influenced by two recent papers from Fed economists that concluded waiting for a lower rate would have greater economic benefits.
The Goldman analysis, from Sven Jari Stehn, said the Fed faces the challenge of not merely stabilizing the unemployment rate but also addressing the plummeting labor-force participation rate, which is at a 35-year low.
"Although our analysis is subject to significant uncertainty, our results suggest that taking into account adverse supply side effects--by aiming to normalize both the unemployment and participation rates--strengthens the case for lowering the 6.5% unemployment threshold," Stehn said. "Our small model suggests that the most desirable unemployment threshold in this case would be around 5.5%."
But the Fed risks its credibility by adjusting its targets.
Markets have been reacting to virtually every word that comes out of the Open Markets Committee. Investors want to know when the Fed will reduce the pace of its asset purchases, and when it plans on raising rates.
Though Bernanke is trying to dissuade markets from attaching too much importance to the unemployment and inflation thresholds, minutes released Wednesday from the October Fed meeting showed only grudging support for lowering the 6.5% guideline.
That could indicate a fight brewing internally that investors may not like.
Follow Cox on Twitter: @JeffCoxCNBCcom.
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The expert featured in this column, George Putnam, may or may not own positions in any investment vehicle mentioned here. The views and opinions expressed are his or her own.
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Getty Images For the historically minded, the political battles of the last few years may have induced an especially vertiginous bout of deja vu. After all, many of the big debates currently roiling our government -- including those over the minimum wage, health care, college tuition and unemployment -- are nothing new. For decades, politicians and pundits have hashed over these topics, arguing over the appropriate breadth and depth of America's social safety net. On Salon, Paul Buchheit offers an interesting rundown of government policies that hurt children, students, the elderly, wage earners, women, minorities, the sick and disabled, and the homeless -- a collection of constituencies that Buchheit calls "the eight biggest victims of America's predatory capitalism." Very succinctly, but with a great deal of solid evidence, he lays out his argument that, over the past few decades, the United States has de-invested from these groups ... with appalling results. There's a lot of room to disagree with Buchheit. Among other things, his categories have a great deal of overlap, and one could argue that he cherry-picks a great deal of his evidence. On the other hand, it's also hard to ignore America's recent attempts to balance the budget by slashing holes in the social safety net. Buchheit's article is a reminder that governmental "savings" rarely come without a cost -- and that the ones left holding the bill are often the people who have the most to lose. 
Alamy We all understand that companies collect information on our behaviors, our shopping patterns and the like. But we collect data about ourselves, too. The problem is that we're not analyzing much of it. And we're missing a big opportunity to improve our lives and our finances. A friend was recently asking me about Fitbit. Most of my friends know that I'm a huge fan of Fitbit, those little pedometers on steroids, that help you monitor the number of daily steps you take and things like calories burned, food consumption, weight, sleep patterns and other health statistics. I love the service and what it tells you about your health. My friend was curious about how it can tell if you got a good night's sleep. I told him that it's a cool feature. Monitoring Your Sleep Is All the Rage A lot of very cool smartphone apps, in addition to Fitbit, monitor your sleep patterns. Studies have shown that there is an optimal time to wake up at your lightest phase of sleep based on your REM sleep patterns, which ebb and flow throughout the night over the course of a few hours each. One app, Sleep Time by Azumio, provides you with stunning graphs and a ream of data about how well you slept the night before. But I told my friend that I don't really know what to do with all of the information. Should I go to bed earlier? Should I stop watching television in bed before I fall asleep? A lot of questions arise from having all of this data at your fingertips. And the same is true with our finances. We often go to great lengths preparing our family's monthly written budget or tracking our net worth. Many credit card companies provide incredible pie charts and graphs about your spending. So what should we do with all of this new information? Are we wasting most of it? How can we put it to work for us instead? Make Some New Habits with the Data "We take the time to construct a detailed budget or use an online budgeting tool, but few of us ever make concrete changes that better our financial lives," says Grant A. Webster, a certified financial planner with AKT Wealth Advisors. The simple answer is that you have to act on the information. Start with small steps. If you analyze your budget and realize that you're spending too much in many categories, pick one to tackle in the first month. For example, if you realize that you're eating out too much in restaurants, make it a goal to skip going out for a month. An old wives' tale says it takes 21 times repeating something to make it a habit. While there is truth in repetition forming a habit, the timespan is different for everyone. The same is true for making a new financial habit. After a month of tackling one category in your budget, you should look towards the next category your struggling with in your overspending. Like eating an elephant, take tiny bits and help reinforce building new habits. Neil Maxwell, a fee-only financial planner with Button Financial in Denver, says that building a new habit should be easy if it is something that you truly want to do. If you are collecting data and not acting on it, maybe you don't need to collect it in the first place. Otherwise simply recognizing that you want to make a change in your life is a powerful force that can help you change. Find an Accountability Partner to Help If the sheer amount of information available overwhelms you, Rupert recommends that you seek help from a trusted financial planner or a life coach. (Similarly, people looking to lose weight join a group like Weight Watchers International (WTW) or hire a personal trainer to help them). Have you sat down with your spouse to discuss your finances? Many couples make this classic mistake. My wife and I have quarterly meetings to discuss how our family's net worth is growing, what we need to focus our investing on and where we are overspending in our budget categories. We are collecting a lot of data about our lives. Whether it is how many steps we take, how well we sleep at night, or how closely we are following our family's monthly budget, you should scrutinize and act on the data you collect. Do you collect a lot of data that you don't use? How do you transition form simply collecting the information to acting on it?