NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - So you thought rising interest rates were inevitable? You were convinced Alan Greenspan would hike rates no matter what because short-term rates were too low?

Well, think again.

In the last two days, three important Federal Reserve officials have given speeches that look like they are intended to CHANGE the prevailing view on Wall Street that the Fed is on an inexorable march toward raising short-term interest rates.

It started on Wednesday with a speech from Bill Poole, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. That speech that spun my head around.

Remember the Fed's terse policy statements that are issued after each interest-rate setting meeting. Over the past few months the Fed has indicated it would move slowly but surely toward higher rates at a "measured" pace, and that has been interpreted as a pledge that higher rates are coming, no matter what.

But on Wednesday Poole said this is NOT an "ironclad" commitment, and that the Fed would move faster or slower "depending on how the economy evolves."

Now Wall Street has been speculating that the Fed might "pause" for awhile after hiking its key rate from 1.75% to 2.0% at the November meeting. Could it be Mr. Poole was sending a smoke signal to suggest the Fed might be shifting into "pause" mode already? That it might even be shifting its view of the economy from "it is regaining traction" to "it hit an oil slick and is in danger of getting stuck in the mud"?

If we had any lingering doubts about our own gut-level reaction (i.e., that Poole was the first salvo in a campaign by the Fed to change Wall Street expectations of where Fed policy is heading), these doubts were eliminated after Fed governor Ben Bernanke gave his speech on Thursday.

The Fed does not have a "magic number" that it is trying to reach on the fed funds rate, its key short-term rate, and "if a slowing of the economy justifies a pause ... that will certainly be the response," said Gov. Bernanke in remarks to the Japan Society.

You want the icing on the cake? Here it is: Dallas fed bank president Bob Mcteer gave a talk on Thursday where he said that Fed rate hikes "will not be automatic."

Now most of these same officials continue to tell us they believe the economy is on track. Most repeat Mr. Greenspan's mantra that the economy hit a temporary soft patch – oh, those pesky oil prices! – but now it has regained traction.

Until Fed officials start making noises about higher oil prices appearing to be weighing on consumers, until Alan Greenspan stops worrying that higher oil prices are going to boost inflation – instead of perhaps eating up families paychecks and putting onerous costs on businesses -- there's no reason to think the Fed is ready to re-think its basic view that its key rate is too low and MUST be raised to a substantially higher level.

In fact, Bernanke said on Thursday that the market has it about right to assume the key rate is going to move higher over the next year and a half, but that the Fed won't hike rates at each and every meeting.

Yet the Fed is sending out smoke signals.

Fed officials may be getting nervous about sky high oil prices that more and more people say won't come down anytime soon. The Fed no doubt is watching the latest numbers on the economy and hoping they will prove their "temporary soft patch" thesis correct, but they're letting us know they are ready to shift gears if they are wrong.  

Kathleen Hays anchors CNN Money Morning and The FlipSide, airing Monday to Friday on CNNfn. As part of CNN's Business News team, she also contributes to Lou Dobbs Tonight.