This may be why Ben cut only .25 yesterday. It sure smells like inflation.

(MarketWatch) - Driven by a weaker dollar and much higher prices for petroleum and natural gas, import prices surged 2.7% in November, the largest monthly increase in 17 years, the Labor Department reported Wednesday.

The Federal Reserve, a PRIVATE bank, has created the current economic problems. Remember back in the first part of the decade when the interest on a jumbo CD would not even cover taxes on the interest and inflation? Or, in other words, if you had $100,000 in a CD, after taxes and inflation, your purchasing power dropped BELOW $100,000. Way to go, Greenspam! As for the stock market, in early
2000, the S&P 500 peaked at about 1527. Today it is below that (1477)....even with dividends,
the inflation adjusted return over the past 7 years is about flat. Is your 401K happy today ??

Interest rates are LOW and going lower. Inflation is still LOW despite gas prices. Unemployment is still LOW. Stocks are still within record HIGHS. Retail sales, to include internet sales are UP. Job creation has been positive for 51 straight months and is UP. The 'subprime' crunch maybe abated by the latest agreement. The trade deficit is DOWN. I LOVE AMERICA!

THIS IS THE ECONOMY THE CONSERVATIVES HAVE GIVEN US!

Reading stuff like this makes me think of a bunch of bookies setting odds for a horse race. These people are gambling, pure and simple. The difference is that they have a chance to influence the outcome. This has nothing to do with the well being of the company, the country, the economy or the majority of us citizens. It is just self-serving greed and power manipulation. On one hand the capitalist/corporatists, decry welfare for the poor, but push to sustain welfare for the very rich and their corporation. We are not supposed to notice that I guess.

Investors have widely seen this latest rate cut as a move of sheer desperation on the part of the Fed. Rate cuts will not address the fundamental instabilities in the financial markets. In 2006 there was $516 trillion in derivatives trading yet only $50 trillion in total global economic output. The money that exists in the world's financial markets is hypothetical at best, and even if the government does something to control hedge funds, private equity groups, and others dealing in high risk financial instruments the markets will still need to undergo a massive correction.

The drops in the markets are indications that some investors are cutting their losses before the big collapse hits.

and the wall, comes tumbling down. And the wall, comes tumbling crumbling...

Doesn't the mindless rote of conservative economic paranoia state that stocks are supposed to rise after an interest rate cut?

Today's traders are cowards; real investors do not panic and sell because the wuss next to him smells like urine!

Lets pretend that the interest rate in the U.S. was pegged at one percent (not far fetched - Japan had a zero rate for years) and then lets also pretend that the Bank of England's interest rate was 5%. You earn dollars from selling crude to the U.S. Question: where do you park those dollars until you spend them??? The Bank of England of course - any dummie knows that you say. Without getting into the relationship between the rediscount rate and the rate on treasury bills all you have to do is look at what happened to treasuries after the 1/4 point reduction. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 3.99% from 4.15% on Monday. So What! The "What" is this: treasuries are backed by the full faith and credit of the US government so they are super "safe" UNLESS the interest rate is a lot lower than one could earn in other countries. Net result is that the dollar gets weaker and folks like OPEC start talking about pricing oil in EUROS. The Fed is obviously politically - not economically driven when it cuts rates in the face of the OVERALL harm such action visits on the US economy. Finally, lets end by pretending that crude oil was priced in Euros instead of dollars. What do you think the pump price would be? How about all the other "stuff" we import? Some sobering thoughts to consider when selecting the party of the people versus the party of business in the next election. Time to wise up!

It was Greenspan who was cutting interest rate at every sneeze in the name of inflation control. Thus the big cats are used to easy money and they pressure the Fed at every ebb in the market. It is like a beast not sparing after getting used to blood.

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The GREEDY piggy banks want to have a "soft landing"

SO

that people won't freak out and foreclose
and say "fuck you" to the banks!

Now is the time when the banks can collect bigtime!

An overpriced $800,000 house with a $700,000 mortgage will give the bank over $2,000,000 in payments, $1,300,000 in interest if the people say "OK, Mr. Bank, we lost our entire down payment of $100,000 but here's your fucking $2 million!"

Don't spend it all in one place!

News Flash to Banks: people want you to suffer too. Try giving the world a break, instead of being greedy and piggy.

More robbery by the fed to cover the rich bankers asses and idiots who took loans they can't afford.

Ron Paul would never have allowed this shit to happen to begin with. NO other candidate seems to understand this crap other than Paul. If he is not elected I assure you America could possibly suffer another Depression. This is NOT a joke, this is fact. You will find out and kick yourself for not voting Ron.

The Fed Cuts ... the Stock market Drops.

Is that how it is supposed to work?

I think Bernanke has a Hell of a lot of pressure on him and I am guessing he has already been pushed out of his Economic comfort zone by it.

The Fed is chasing a bad bet with these cuts, I'm sure the Fed recognizes there isn't a quick fix to this mess ... maybe they are being leaned on by Wall Street to loosen things up a bit so that the Fat Cats can get their money out.

I'm guessing the Fat Cats thought there would be a more of a rise associated with this rate cut ... "buy the rumor, sell the fact?"

I don't know, I think it's gonna take some time to work this mess out ... Rate cuts are quick fixes but don't address the longterm problem.

It's going to be ugly for quite some time.

Midsection,
"But it turned out that in those years the foundations were laid for the strongest period of US economic growth in the past 35 years."
Reagan actually created the greatest debt the US has ever had and Bush has greatly surpassed him.

Shout out to Mid Section!

Your a Nazi. Instead of complaining about liberals negativity you should be informing on them for their crimes. Thoughts against the state.

Gee I wonder why people weren't always bitching and moaning during the Clinton years?......Let me think. Hmm.

Newsflash retardate boy. People would much rather have actual success to celebrate than have to pretend to be happy with abject failure.

Tell me when the economy actually goes negative growth into a recession next summer should we all take a deep breath, look around and say "Man we're doing great!"?