Bernanke at an event to discuss lessons from 2008 crisis

Bernanke brushed aside worries about the yield curve at an event late Tuesday, saying that QE and regulatory changes may have distorted the signal.

Today, US 2s-10s are trading 24.5 basis points apart.

"Historically the inversion of the yield curve has been a good [sign] of economic downturns [but] this time it may not," he said.

"Everything we see in terms of the near-term outlook for the economy is quite strong," he added.

Bernanke has a history of ignoring the yield curve. It inverted in early 2006 and he continued to hike through June 2006 before starting to cut in Sept 2007 as the crisis intensified.

In less-explicit terms, Powell also dismissed the signal from the yield curve yesterday. For me, that they would dismiss it actually makes a recession more likely because it means they will hike despite the inversion.