The actions by the Fed seems amateurish and ham-handed. They should be trying to ensure orderly market movements. Surprising the markets with these announcements is just increasing market volatility. Why couldn't they have announced this news yesterday with the rate cut? What's likely is that they got caught with their pants down yesterday and scrambled to rectify it.
And maybe what you aren't seeing is that in capitalism, parts need to fail in order to make the whole stronger in the future. The fed just won't let the inevitable failures happen.
I would agree with your question of the FEDS timing. That having been said, I believe that this "coordination" move was being worked on weeks ago. It just didn't happen overnight because the markets responded poorly to yesterday's 1/4 point rate decrease.
You couldn't be more WRONG. Coordination events as the one that was instituted this morning by the FED take a couple of weeks to put into motion and plan for. They do not just "happen" overnight!
What it illustrates is how out of touch the Fed is with the market. They actually thought their 25pt cut and blase press release would not roil the markets.
Look, I'm all for letting things fail. If you don't see that it's completely irrelevant to what I'm saying, I'm just wasting my time. In fact, I'm almost certainly wasting my time. Every time I come back to this site I'm absolutely baffled at the ignorance (not directed at you personally). The number of posters on this site worth reading is about 4 in, what, 40000? Bleh. I think I'll leave for a few months again.
I agree bro that Bernanke wasn't desperately phoning Euro bankers from his bed last night. That being said I believe the timing of the announcement itself was in response to yesterday's market action. They could've come out with this along with the policy statement but it would've been futile with the mkts fixated only on the funds target. The Fed was well aware of the hiccup sure to follow only .25 and they kept the tonic in the fridge overnight. EVERYTHING this board does is postured toward the stock markets approval. Whether it's a discount rate cut on the morning of opex or dovish statements made in thin AH trading these guys are all about squeezing shorts. I think Kohn, Poole and Bernanke wish we'd all blow out and never short again. This is a failed policy. But then again we'll let the market speak on that issue......