Fed Chairman Bernanke testified to the Senate Banking Committee today and basically said nothing useful. More importantly, he didn’t say he’d do anything useful either.

Democrats, continuing a recent pattern, were less forceful in their calls for additional action by the Fed. They received from Mr. Bernanke only the assurance that the Fed took the issue of unemployment seriously.

I’m freaking delighted to hear the Fed takes unemployment seriously. But it’s part of the Fed’s mission to do more than just take it seriously!

• conducting the nation’s monetary policy by influencing the monetary and credit conditions in the economy in pursuit of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates
• supervising and regulating banking institutions to ensure the safety and soundness of the nation’s banking and financial system and to protect the credit rights of consumers
• maintaining the stability of the financial system and containing systemic risk that may arise in financial markets
• providing financial services to depository institutions, the U.S. government, and foreign official institutions, including playing a major role in operating the nation’s payments system

See that first item? It says the Fed is supposed to pursue maximum employment, which since World War 2 has generally been accepted as 95% of all employable Americans. At the moment only about 85% of all employable Americans have full-time jobs; the other 15% are part-timers looking for full-time work or people who want to work but have temporarily given up looking.

I submit, Mr. Chairman, that you are not fulfilling all the tasks described in your mission and you should start doing so immediately.