For U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, the biggest challenges are still to come.

Has Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke suddenly turned into an inflation fighter? To my knowledge, Bernanke has never before stressed the dollar’s decline, the inflationary dangers it poses and his intention to guard against these as much as he did yesterday.

Gold, which was up a bit in the far East, plummeted from $910 to $889 once London opened, but from there it forged higher through the New York trading day, to finish at $899.90/oz., down $4.40. Overnight, gold has continued to decline.