WASHINGTON — A few months of scrambled economic data have not altered the Federal Reserve’s basic view that the American economy is gaining strength, nor its intention to start pulling back soon from its stimulus campaign, the Fed’s chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, said Tuesday evening.

Mr. Bernanke, in a speech with valedictory overtones as he prepares to step down, described the Fed’s efforts to revive the economy since 2008 as coherent, consistent and successful. And he emphasized once again that even as the Fed begins to retreat, it would maintain the bulk of the campaign for years to come.  Read more