Posted on 01/10/2008 4:47:58 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Bernanke Comments Indicate Additional Rate Cuts
By Neil Irwin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 10, 2008; 2:39 PM
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke today gave the clearest indication yet that the central bank will move aggressively to cut interest rates to try to prevent a serious economic downturn.
The Fed has cut the short-term interest rate it controls three times, for a total of one percentage point, since September, in an effort to keep a crisis in the housing and financial markets from spreading into the broader economy. In recent weeks, evidence has mounted that the economy is slowing anyway.
In a speech in Washington, Bernanke said that in light of that recent negative economic news, "additional policy easing may well be necessary." He added that Fed policymakers "stand ready to take substantive additional action as needed to support growth and provide adequate insurance against downside risks."
Stocks rose sharply shortly after noon when Bernanke's speech became public. (A news service published the text of the speech, in violation of an embargo, before Bernanke delivered it at 1 p.m.) The Dow Jones industrial average rapidly gained more than 150 points, then fell back. At 2 p.m., the Dow was up 17 points, essentially flat.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
BUMP
“Do you think I should wait until the next rate cut?”
Another 1/2 point drop coming up.
You got a couple of good answers already — I’ll echo the thought of waiting for the next Fed Meeting — most traders are betting that this is another .5%’er. Rule of thumb; If you can save at least .75% think about it, if you can save 1%, do it!
Of course, your mileage may vary...
~~Harvard Economic Society, October 19, 1929
"I cannot help but raise a dissenting voice to statements that we are living in a fool's paradise, and that prosperity in this country must necessarily diminish and recede in the near future."
~~E. H. H. Simmons, President, New York Stock Exchange, January 12, 1928
"Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau. I do not feel there will be soon if ever a 50 or 60 point break from present levels, such as (bears) have predicted. I expect to see the stock market a good deal higher within a few months."
~~Irving Fisher PhD, leading U.S. economist , New York Times, October 17, 1929
"This is the time to buy stocks. This is the time to recall the words of the late J. P. Morgan... that any man who is bearish on America will go broke. Within a few days there is likely to be a bear panic rather than a bull panic. Many of the low prices as a result of this hysterical selling are not likely to be reached again in many years."
~~R. W. McNeel, market analyst, as quoted in the New York Herald Tribune, October 30, 1929
Several brokerage houses tumbled; blue-sky investment companies formed during the happy bull market days went to smash, disclosing miserable tales of rascality; over a thousand banks caved in during 1930, as a result of marking down both of real estate and of securities; and in December occurred the largest bank failure in American financial history, the fall of the ill-named Bank of the United States in New York.
~~"Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s" by Fredrick Lewis Allen
"There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as a result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved."
~~Ludwig von Mises
"All safe deposit boxes in banks or financial institutions have been sealed...and may only be opened in the presence of an agent of the I.R.S."
~~President F.D. Roosevelt, 1933
The patient (that’s us) is feeling pain, we need more morphine (easy money).
Since the Fed was created has it EVER indicated that a recession was coming?
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