Quote from trefoil:
Full disclosure: I thought they were stupid to go over 4.25, and then just crazy to go over 4.5 back when they were raising. All this did was make it easy for the Chinese to keep the yuan undervalued, without having any effect on the credit situation here in the US, since long rates never did respond to the rises. This was a sign, and to me is still a sign, that Bernanke is an academic fool with no idea of how the real economy works.
However, they do have to prep the markets if they're going to cut. Having dug a big fat hole for himself, he can't climb out of it by throwing the dollar down to the bottom of the pit and using it to get himself out. That would only prove just how incompetent he actually is.
Of course, if Bear goes belly up and this causes the credit markets to seize up, he'll be forced to anyway. That will cause some interesting times for the dollar, indeed.
Also, recall that the jobs report was weaker than expected. It would be a tattered fig leaf, but it could be used to at least try to keep the markets from trashing the buck, should he be forced to cut.