The Federal Reserve did not only vow to maintain a zero interest-rate policy through the end of 2014 (a policy that has its critics, incidentally). They also set an explicit interest rate target for the first time ever, as far as I can tell.

One of the standard opinions from many economists, especially those on the right, was that the US spending/debt load was unsustainable and would surely spark massive inflation. After the downgrade of US debt by Standard and Poor’s after the debt limit deal, debt was seen as toxic. America just had to deal with its debt problem or the bond market would deal with it for them. This dog simply has not barked.

We have a better sense of the situation in Europe, or at least the game being played by Angela Merkel and the European Central Bank, in tandem. Merkel and the ECB, before acquiescing to any scheme involving Eurobonds or running the printing presses, want to tighten fiscal integration among Eurozone countries, with the attendant loss of national sovereignty and real penalties for breaking fiscal guidelines.

In Spain, the Popular Party led by Mariano Rajoy scored a victory over the Socialists, due in no small part to the crisis ravaging the country with high unemployment and a collapsing housing market. But the new government is wedded to the same austerity policies that have already tanked the Spanish economy.

The Federal Reserve took no new action after its November meetings today, continuing on the same path, using some minor monetary easing and announcing that the federal funds rate will remain at its current level until at least mid-2013. Charles Evans of the Chicago Fed, who has been calling for a bigger intervention to maximize employment, bravely dissented from the left, becoming the first FOMC member to do so since 2007.

Dick Durbin admitted that the Senate doesn’t have the votes to pass the American Jobs Act. Chuck Schumer cautioned that such a statement is premature. Durbin’s right, and it’s merely a statement of political reality. Republicans are not going to agree to anything that will have immediate economic impact to help the President in his re-election.

If you believe, as Ben Bernanke does, that the high unemployment rate represents a national crisis, you have to search for another method beyond Congress, then, to get help and ameliorate the crisis. That means that you have to consider firing up the printing press and solving the demand gap with wads of cash.

The Greek Parliament passed a property tax levy, the latest austerity measure imposed by Greece’s creditors as a condition for receiving the next installment of funding from the Euro bailout mechanism. It’s looking like a morality play, in which creditors feel morally justified in punishing debtors.

Now that we’ve determined that the economy is destined for a decade or more of depressed growth with no hope, it’s perhaps a small comfort that one important policymaker actually views this as a huge problem which he could play a role in solving. Charles Evans of the Chicago Federal Reserve released a paper yesterday spelling out why high unemployment is a huge failure of Fed policymakers.

Like America, European nations have been pursuing spending cuts and other austerity that lead to declining GDP growth numbers and fears of a double dip recession. Europe embraced austerity more quickly than did the US, and it’s predictably depressing, so the expected results are occurring: Britain, which ushered in a mass austerity program, is paying the price with zero growth and may now be reconsidering whether to pursue at least some monetary stimulus.

I don’t think there’s been a complete slate on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors during the entire Obama Administration. But that would end if they somehow got these two economists past the Senate for confirmation.