Fed cuts interest rates by 80 gajillion points

Or something like that.

Well, hey, it's pretty sweet for my student loans.

P.S. If the economy gets bad enough, will the Fed make interest rates negative, such that Citibank will have to start paying me for the privilege of holding my debt? Because that'd be awesome. :)

Comments

[yea]

great... the stock market can go up but no real value will be gained since the dollar will continue to spiral. the only "growth" our economy will have is inflation. im not sure if there is enough domestic savings in the united states to spur another bull market, we now likely need to rely on foreign investment.

this is what happens when we don't have enough regulation of big business. short-sighted greed runs rampant and everyone takes a hit. we need more effective regulation of these businesses to avoid slipping further down the slope and becoming an oligarchy.

or we can just eliminate minimum wage and open the borders

[yea]

i agree on opening the borders. most economists would agree also. on the other hand, while the mininum wage might hurt the economy on some level, the benefits farrrrr outweight the costs in my opinion.

[David K.]

With the economy struggling like this I just know that the administration will make the right choices, like making tanker deals that send billions of dollars to U.S. companies instead of European ones, or spending ourselves into debt taken on by the Chinese.

[Antonia]

Does any one else think it is funny the
DOW surged 420 points?

PS I live in San Rafael CA. Origins of 420 LOL

[4-7]

I am sure some democrat is proposing negative interest rates as we speak as some sort of stimulus package. Maybe Charles Rangel. I do a good Charles Rangel impression. Very throaty with a touch of the red-head nerd from family guy.

[Joe Mama]

Notice how you never see Charlie Rangel and Susan Estrich on the same show at the same time? Hmm...

[4-7]

ha !

[Sandy Underpants]

When the Fed cuts it to zero around June, can they actually start going into the negatives? A -1% interest rate would work well for my mortgage.

[Becky]

I wonder how this crisis fits in to Hilary's experience tripe. After all, while she was in the White House, Congress loosened regulations on the mortgage industry. Gotta love those Clinton fiscal policies. Harumph.

[Russ]

Time out everyone.

1. It was and is not the responsbility of the government to manage the business decisions of the mortgage industry or I-banking - except to the extent it is for the public protection [i.e. Truth in Lending or Settlement requirements] or for an entity that is insured with the public trust [i.e. commerical banks]. The discipline should have been brought to the party by the buyers of the securities and the rating agencies on which these buyers relied.

2. These rate cuts are dangerous. After today we are at a negative real rate [inflation adjusted]. The dollar is at the lowest level in several business cycles. The foreign governments and corporations on which we are dependent are finding their dollar reserves considerably devalued.

3. When government gets involved in propping up eneities which otherwise would fail, it disperses the pain across the populace, including players who behaved with due caution. Even worse, it drags out the recovery. For a recent example, ask Japan how long they were down after trying to stop the pain of an exploding bubble with 'sticky' capital and massive rate cuts. They were down for over 12 years.

4. If the Fed did not rescue Bear [yes it was the Fed, with a $20 billion backstop for JP Morgan-Chase] it would have defaulted Monday. By some accounts, it was a counterparty in over 240,000 transactions scattered around the globe. It would have been a nightmare for the system to sort that out and would have caused further panic. After all, at the end of the day, it was a good ole fashion 'run on the bank' that took down Bear.

[Andrew]

I largely agree with you Russ, although it is worth noting that the government artificially limits the market for credit rating agencies, and I tend to accept the WSJ logic that says it is time to expand the market of companies who want to be involved in the credit rating business.

[Joe Mama]

Time out indeed. Well struck, Russ.