If Bernanke really "shakes the tree," half the world may fall out

``Perhaps Bernanke will oblige one more time, knowing that the US economy has yet to absorb the full shock of fiscal tightening, the biggest squeeze for half a century... Yet what causes me to hesitate is the drip of reports and comments from key figures in -- or near -- the Fed seeming to suggest a loss of nerve, or who fear that QE has turned counterproductive... [e.g.] Frederic Mishkin -- Bernanke's close friend and a former board member -- warned that is becoming ever harder for the Fed to extricate itself safely from QE, and the door my shut altogether from 2014.''