'Safely to Shore'

"It's not going to get that kind of life-buoy thrown out over the water so that it can grab hold and swim safely to shore," he said.

A government report today signaled that excluding a Verizon Communications Inc. labor dispute, companies are slowing the pace of firings. The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits dropped by 80,000 in the week ended Aug. 13 to 3.64 million, the fewest since September 2008.

Bernanke's speech, entitled "Near- and Long-Term Prospects for the U.S. Economy," is part of an annual symposium hosted by the Kansas City Fed since 1982 beside the Teton mountains.

Academics and central bank officials are gathering to consider the theme, "Achieving Maximum Long-Run Growth." They will hear presentations by Esther Duflo, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, Dani Rodrik, a Harvard University professor, and European Central Bank President Jean- Claude Trichet, who has attended the conference during five of the past six years.

Portfolio Weight

Bernanke, 57, may stress the option of trying to reduce long-run borrowing costs by giving more weight in the Fed's portfolio to longer-term securities, Hembre said.

"Expectations ahead of the meeting were quite high at the beginning of this week for some kind of firm policy statement, but I think that's very unlikely," said John Kattar, chief investment officer at Eastern Investment Advisors in Boston, which manages $1.7 billion.

The Fed chief is constrained from signaling more easing by the fact that the Fed's Aug. 9 statement already leaned toward more stimulus and dissenting votes from three policy makers limit his ability to articulate a new strategy, Dugger said. Just before Bernanke's speech a year ago, the Fed was in a more neutral stance and he faced only one dissenter.

"The bar is high on additional security purchases," said James Dunigan, chief investment officer in Philadelphia for PNC Wealth Management, which oversees $109 billion. He doesn't see a need for more quantitative easing, estimating the odds of a recession as 20 percent to 30 percent.