Good question. Real wages have declined really due to a lack of inflation which is “good” for the economy. When we see real inflation you will see rising wages. Right now there is slack in the labor market which is also not putting pressure on wages.
There is some commodity “inflation” but I’m not sure it’s monetary inflation as the overall price level has remained relative stable to slightly increasing. Things like oil, gold, corn are subject to exogenous factors not related to the monetary level.
Bernanke’s PhD was on the Great Depression and he believes that the Fed tightened too fast and caused the deflationary recession in 37-38. He has always said that he would never make that same mistake again. He was true to his word :-)
Bernanke maybe was a PhD but ... we are now in uncharted territory (imho).