Ripping the lengthy debt negotiations this summer as damaging to the markets and economy, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Friday announced that the Fed wouldn’t take any steps at this time to provide a boost but indicated they may be considered next month.

In a closely watched speech at a Jackson Hole, Wyoming, conference, Bernanke criticized the political process that took the United States right up to the bring of defaulting on its debt and lead S & P to downgrade the nation’s triple A credit rating.

Bernanke said, “The negotiations that took place over the summer disrupted financial markets and probably the economy as well, and similar events in the future could” do the same.