Asset prices? We haven’t inflated no steenking asset prices!

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said it’s “not obvious” that asset prices in the U.S. are out of line with underlying values after a 64 percent jump in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index from its March low.

“It is inherently extraordinarily difficult to know whether an asset’s price is in line with its fundamental value,” he said today in response to audience questions after a speech in New York. “It’s not obvious to me in any case that there’s any large misalignments currently in the U.S. financial system.”

Okay, so not in the US, but in emerging markets? In my pants? No comment on those issues. He then thumbed his nose in an eastward direction, because Japan and China  lately have made statements suggesting they are no fans of Bernanke’s sustained ZIRP-y policy (uhmmm, srsly though, on that matter who is Japan to talk) and the fact that the dollar has lately been wont to play in traffic.

Bloomberg found this economist who suggests the rally in stocks and commodities  is a bit long in the tooth:

In some markets, including U.S. stocks, gold and oil, “there may not necessarily be a bubble, but you certainly have valuations that are above where near-term conditions would suggest they’re going to be at,” said Keith Hembre, chief economist at U.S. Bancorp’s FAF Advisors Inc. in Minneapolis, which oversees $103 billion.

“They’re certainly priced for robust improvement,” said Hembre, who previously worked at the Fed.

Not sure what “robust improvement” would translate to literally but it probably equals a solid holiday season, somewhat less than 10% unemployment in the US, factories cranking stuff out again, the emerging economies continuing to demand natural resources n’ stuff and some other things that may or may not happen, so plan accordingly. (Full disclosure: related to this post, my household is long $XOM, gold, silver and $FXI, with a very sharp eyeball on the entire lot of it.)