www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

   

Fed cuts rates boldly; Wall Street wary

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-01-31 06:50

In the gravest challenge to his leadership since becoming Fed chief nearly two years ago, Bernanke must help stem the fallout from both the housing bust and a credit crunch. Wall Street critics and others have taken Bernanke to task for waiting until September of last year to embark on a rate-cutting campaign, accusing the Fed chief of being behind the curve in dealing with the economy's problems.

Bernanke also must be mindful of not letting inflation get out of hand - a delicate and tricky maneuver. Oil prices have receded from $100 a barrel but still remain high. The Fed said it expects inflation to ease in coming quarters but added that it is imperative to monitor developments carefully.

Still, more rate cuts are expected at the Fed's next scheduled meeting in March and beyond. Some economists predict the key rate could drop as low as 2 percent this year, which would be the lowest in four years.

"The Fed needs to throw out a life raft to the economy pending the fiscal stimulus measures," said Brian Bethune, economist at Global Insight.

Even further action might not avert a recession but rather limit the damage. The interest rate cuts will take months to affect the economy, as will any stimulus package approved by the government. Neither effort will quickly cure the root cause of the economy's troubles: a severely depressed housing market and bad mortgage investments.

The economy may actually be declining now. Under one rough rule, it would have to contract for six months in a row for the country to be considered in a recession. The likelihood of a recession has risen sharply over the past year, and analysts increasingly believe the US will be in one during the first half of 2008. The worry is that people and businesses, which turned more cautious at the end of the year will hunker down, sending the economy into a tailspin.

Bernanke is not expected to cut rates as deeply as did his predecessor, Alan Greenspan, when Greenspan took on the 2001 recession, the economic fallout of the Sept. 11 attacks, a series of accounting scandals that rocked Wall Street and the uncertainty that gripped the country leading up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

By the summer of 2003, Greenspan had slashed rates to 1 percent, a 45-year low. He held rates there for a year before the Fed began pushing them back up.

Critics contend those low rates helped feed a housing frenzy, in which home values zoomed and investors gobbled up risky loans, known as subprime mortgages, to borrowers with poor credit histories. When the housing market collapsed, the greatest damage was in subprime loans. Banks and other financial institutions have taken big hits on these soured mortgage investments.

   1 2   


Top World News  
Today's Top News  
Most Commented/Read Stories in 48 Hours
主站蜘蛛池模板: 美国毛片免费一级 | www.操操操| 国产特黄一级毛片特黄 | 99久久精品久久久久久婷婷 | 九九精品免费视频 | 三及毛片 | 色拍拍噜噜噜aⅴ在线观看 色青青草原桃花久久综合 色婷婷91 | 亚洲免费视频一区二区三区 | 国产在线观看午夜不卡 | 午夜a一级毛片一.成 | 一区二区三区免费在线视频 | 国产精品视频网址 | 步兵精品手机在线观看 | 亚洲精品字幕一区二区三区 | 手机看片77v1| 在线欧洲成人免费视频 | 国产毛片久久国产 | 国产精品成人久久久 | 国产99视频免费精品是看6 | 亚洲字幕波多野结衣作品 | 一区毛片 | 成人一区视频 | 中文字幕在线观看亚洲日韩 | 国产成人在线综合 | 国产精品爱久久久久久久三级 | 热99re久久精品这里都是免费 | 国产精品久草 | 久热色| 岛国伊人 | 麻豆19禁国产青草精品 | 在线播放性xxx欧美 在线播放亚洲视频 | 亚洲m男在线中文字幕 | 久久爽久久爽久久免费观看 | 毛片视频网站在线观看 | a级黄色毛片免费播放视频 a级精品九九九大片免费看 | 欧美一级毛片无遮挡 | 美国一级毛片免费看成人 | 亚洲成在人线免费视频 | 久久精品国产精品亚洲精品 | 香蕉久久夜色精品国产尤物 | 成人国产精品免费视频不卡 |