The plan is to spur the recovery by buying government securities to lower long-term interest rates.
Traditionally, the Fed bought and sold Treasury securities to lower and raise the key interest rate it controls, the federal funds rate.
But he also revealed a certain frustration at the sharp response to the Fed's decision to renew a strategy, known as quantitative easing, that involves buying Treasury securities to lower long-term interest rates.
But the Fed's announcement on Wednesday that it would resume a strategy of buying Treasury securities to lower long-term interest rates has generated unease around the world.
Stephen H. Axilrod, a retired Fed official and the author of "Inside the Fed," a book about monetary policy, said of the committee members: "They're gathering the nerve to end this response to the crisis and revert to normal, which is not to buy large amounts of long-term securities to lower interest rates".
In a detailed explanation of the Fed's Nov. 3 decision to resume quantitative easing — a strategy of buying Treasury securities to lower long-term interest rates — Mr. Bernanke emphasized that inflation was expected to be at "historically low levels for some time".
In addition, the Federal Reserve could introduce another round of buying mortgage-backed securities to lower long-term interest rates, a process dubbed quantitative easing, some economists said.
It will tend, therefore, to create an excess supply of securities, to lower securities prices, and to raise the rate of interest.
The news preceded the Federal Reserve's announcement that it would buy as much as $300 billion of Treasuries and $750 billion in mortgage-backed securities to lower borrowing costs.
The company also warned securities analysts to lower their expectations for the current quarter to 17 cents a share from 19 cents.
