Fed Expected To Cut Interest Rates Again

AP:

Faced with a spreading mortgage crisis, the Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates today for a third straight time and hint that even more rate cuts could be forthcoming.

That is the view of private economists, who believe that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke clearly signaled this outcome in a speech last month in which he said that the latest bout of financial market turbulence raised greater risks for the economy.

Most economists are expecting a quarter-point cut in the federal funds rate at Tuesday's meeting, which will be the Fed's last rate-setting discussion this year. That would push the federal funds rate down 4.25 percent and send banks' prime lending rate, the benchmark for millions of consumer and business loans, down to 7.25 percent, the lowest level in two years.

Read the whole story: AP

Comments

[MetalCanuck]

02:07 PM on 12/11/2007

Ron Paul is warning about this, the rest of the candidates are clueless. You guys better wake up because you will not be having social programs or anything else if the dollar crashes. You need a president who is also an economist, he knows how to deal with this dollar problem.

Believe me whatever you disagree with when it comes to Ron Paul will seem like small potato's compared to a depression which could be coming soon.

Wake up.

[Yogsoggoth]

01:23 PM on 12/11/2007

Hey Ben,

Warming up your helicopter yet?

[studlyguy]

12:47 PM on 12/11/2007

it is to late, the depression is on it's way, the fed is just playing the game for the bush regime trying to stall what IS GOING TO HAVE TO HAPPEN ,because the bush regime is telling him what to do this is not going to do a thing but make it worse ,get ready for THE DEPRESION

[PigLipstick]

12:41 PM on 12/11/2007

Just received an email from a company I buy software from, they are dropping the dollar and switching to accepting Euros in January. This is not astounding news but it's all the little things that start to add up !

More of the Right Wings Trickle Down economics theory that continues to promote borrowing our economy to success. Foreign countries are picking up the bills for the party that only the top 10% is invited to. The Fed participates in this fraud by running the printing presses 24/7 and the American public pays with higher prices, using increasingly inflated and worthless dollars, on everything while salaries stay flat for the seventh year in a row.

I would be extremely happy if we only have a severe recession, the fact is that a world wide depression is closer to reality !

[dolphy]

11:59 AM on 12/11/2007

Is it true that the Iranians started taking only Euros for their oil staring this week? Why is it not in the papers?

[Pdubya]

11:49 AM on 12/11/2007

this is staging for the Amero. Which is another fiat money system, only larger.

Hello two class system. Rich and poor.

[BenBernanke]

11:40 AM on 12/11/2007

of course it would be "antisemitic" for me to remark that...

greenspan is a jew,

I myself ben barnicle bernanke am a jew...

Let's see these big jew york banks who engineered these exotic financial instruments coming back to haunt us...

goldman sachs and the like... jewish?

could it have anything to do with jews (stdents or not) dancing in the streets of NY on 9-11?

I mean, we fight their wars, our congress whether democrap or rethug is owned by them...

the MSM is full of them...

are there dots to connect here?

or would that be too antisemitic for our fragile sensibilities?

[EinChicago]

11:33 AM on 12/11/2007

The sky is falling, the sky is falling. Anyone capable of reading a book or even a wikipedia summary of the S&L debacle know that the root cause of this problem was hiking rates too high too rapidly in order to fund the war.

The S&L crash happened because rates were hiked too high and the trusts ended up having to pay higher interest on the money they serviced than they received from the fixed lower rate mortgages. The same thing happened again, but this time the homeowner was left holding the bag from the rapid-fire rate hikes Bernanke has been addicted to. 5% is a fair maximum ceiling for mortagage rates in a modern economy. Anything above that and the stress will cause defaults to spike. Frankly, bernanke needs to lower the rates steadily back to around the 2-3% mark.

[speakingtruth2power]

11:32 AM on 12/11/2007

Bernanke's job is to hold the economy together until the Dems are in charge so
they can be blamed for the post war depression, just like Jimmy Carter was.
If he could figure out how to pay banks to borrow money, he would do that too.
Good God, this country really needs to start with deBushification! No more BCBCB!!

[BenBernanke]

11:30 AM on 12/11/2007

Economy UP UP and AWAY !!! drummroll please...
"Huh, we've got to cut rates as the economy is weak"

which is it?

"THINGS ARE GETTING BETTER... MARKET IS UP, UP AND AWAY..." BLA BLA...

TOTALLY AND OPENLY RIGGED MARKETS!

YOU IDIOTS.

*******************************************
CITIBANK AND BANKAMERICA ARE ON THE ROPES !
*******************************************

DON'T BELIEVE IT?

READ THIS...

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6642

YOU'RE VERY SOON GONNA SEE THE GREATEST RUN ON BANKS IN HISTORY...

REMEMBER AND READ FDIC FINEPRINT... YOU ONLY GET YOUR 100K BACK WITHIN 30 DAYS... BY THEN IT IS WORTHLESS HYPERINFLATED DOLLAR JUNK...

THIS IS NOT A FINANCIAL CRISIS BUT A MARKET DISINTEGRATION!

The fact is... ALL US BANKS ARE TECHNICALLY INSOLVENT.

the faith and credit of US is the same lie as everything else, democracy, free markets, capitalism, the Bill of Rights, etc... all lies... the jig is up!

EMERGENCY ! RUN TO YOUR BANK GET ALL YOUR CASH OUT! FDIC IS A SCAM FOR HYPERINFLATED WORTHLESS DEVALUED DOLLARS! CONVERT ALL YOUR CASH INTO €UROS, RUBLES OR YUAN (CAN BE DONE IN TRAVELER CHEQUES)

DON'T DO IT AND YOU WILL LOSE EVERYTHING, GUARANTEED!

The dow will lose more than 10.000 before Xmas.
The dollar will collapse before Xmas.

Everybody's credit is about to be fucked anyway... Repay nothing, go max out the cards on cash advances and convert it all in €uros (or better Rubles and Yuan)

and hurry... a run on the banks is next... get your money out while you can...

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6534

want some background reading? (form Bank of Int'l Settlements)

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6209

MUST READ EXCELLENT ECON 101 review:

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2304.shtml

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2310.shtml

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2316.shtml

[Pdubya]

11:21 AM on 12/11/2007

Bernanke gets OWNED again:

There were cheers and clapping in the meeting, cut off in this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAwvlDJgJbM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaxdUPNYj2s

[VivaZapata]

11:04 AM on 12/11/2007

Is there anybody out there stupid enough to assume that Goldman Sachs and other financial monsters don't invest ahead for upcoming rate ADJUSTSMENTS? They are the Federal Reserve, and they act in their interests to the detriment of yours/ours. Oil didn't go up so much as the dollar went down (and therefore cost more to import). Prepare for more misery, and you know who to thank.

[drkazmd65]

10:54 AM on 12/11/2007

OK,... so if we are going to have run-away inflation,...

How about my Student Loan holder (damn I hate AES) drops the interest rate on my friggin' student loans already?

They sure as hell raised them rapidly enough over the last couple of years,...

[wsblake]

10:48 AM on 12/11/2007

Scrambling to prevent the inevitable recession; and the only thing it will do is create more inflation- get ready in other words for same very,very serious stagflation.