As Measured by the Five-Year Inflation Breakeven…

…the U.S. economy today is further from “normalization”–understood as a 2%/year breakeven inflation rate in financial markets–than it was in June 2012, just before Bernanke began talking about “unwinding” and triggered Ms Market’s Taper Tantrum:

Why the steep slide in expectations of inflation since June has not triggered more of an FOMC reassessment of its policies than it has is a mystery. Such a reassessment certainly was not on display or in sub rosa whispers in Washington DC during IMF week…