WASHINGTON — There is room for American workers’ wages to grow and reason to expect it, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke Thursday told congressional critics who said pay wasn’t keeping pace with profits. In a second day of testimony on the U.S. central bank’s semiannual economic forecast, Bernanke told the U.S. House of Representatives’ Financial Services panel he expected inflation to moderate and said a wage rise would not impede that. ‘Increases in real wages are entirely consistent with low inflation, there is no contradiction,’ he said in response to a string of questions from lawmakers who said average Americans feel pinched by rising energy and other costs. The Fed chief repeated that the economy was ‘in transition’ toward slower growth that will help contain prices, remarks that sparked a sharp rally in stock markets on Wednesday when he testified before the Senate Banking Committee. Minutes issued on Thursday afternoon from the Fed’s June 28-29 policy meeting reinforced a view that policy-makers were nearing a pause in their two-year campaign of raising interest rates. ‘With the economy slowing and some of the effects of past tightening still in the pipeline, members recognized the value of […]