Deciphering Bernanke

In a speech to an audience of academics, central bankers and Wall Street economists at the Fed's annual Jackson Hole shindig, Ben Bernanke said the following:

"It is not the responsibility of the Federal Reserve, nor would it be appropriate, to protect lenders and investors from the consequences of their financial decisions. But developments in financial markets can have broad economic effects felt by many outside the markets, and the Federal Reserve must take those effects into account when determining policy."

The most important word in that quotation is but. It means you should ignore the sentence that came before it.