James Bullard, head of the Saint Louis Federal Reserve, is known for his hawkish stance on Federal Reserve policy, and he's been an outspoken critic of additional monetary easing.

That has put him at odds with the current course of policy, wherein the Fed recently announced open-ended easing until unemployment returns to pre-crisis levels.

But Bullard says it's a futile attempt because unemployment simply can't return to pre-crisis levels – a reflection of the argument that the economy is facing a "new normal" going forward.

In a whopper of a presentation delivered last night at the University of Notre Dame, Bullard explained why the Fed is wrong to try to stimulate more – and how the central bank could lose control of inflation before monetary policymakers even realize their mistake.