[montag813]

All we’ve heard for the last 24 hours is how our markets would PLUNGE today...all doom and gloom. May still happen, but I don’t see it right now.M

The futures are now LOWER than before the panic cut was announced. If Bernake had chilled out, he could have allowed the markets to try and rally off this, holding a rate cut in his quiver "in case" they didn't. If the markets sell off now, what can he do? He has shot his wad. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail, but the Bush-Paulson-Bernake show has so far been a bust.

[Timeout]

The futures are now LOWER than before the panic cut was announced. If Bernake had chilled out, he could have allowed the markets to try and rally off this

As I said : the futures were likely already factoring in rate cuts and soon. If Bernake had "chilled", I think futures would be reflecting yesterday's world markets. So we disagree. We'll see soon.

[Soren]

Bernanke is damned if he do and damned if he don’t. Rate cuts won’t fix things. He was forced to make a bold cut because the markets would have collapsed today if he hadn’t and that would undermine his credibility. This way he can say, hell I cut 75bp, which i think is the biggest single cut since 1984.

[Alberta's Child]

Keep in mind that the Fed may still cut rates even further at the end of January.