The Federal Reserve made an emergency interest rate cut to zero on Sunday night, a dramatic step meant to make borrowing as cheap as possible for American households and businesses as the coronavirus brings the U.S. economy to a near standstill. The benchmark U.S. interest rate will now be in a range of 0 to 0.25 percent, effectively bringing the rate to zero as President Trump has urged for months. the Fed also announced a significant increase in its bond purchases, a move similar to the large scale “quantitative easing” the central bank did in the aftermath of the Great Recession to try to get money flowing again in markets and the broader economy. “The [Fed] expects to maintain this target range until it is confident that the economy has weathered recent events,” the central bank wrote in a statement released Sunday evening. https://www.washingtonpost.com/busi...ero-part-wide-ranging-emergency-intervention/
Now they will have no juice left at the Wednesday meeting to deal with the China numbers coming out tonight, plus the rest of the data coming out next week(s)/month. And I just came across Trump's press conference, he's not helping things.
Unreal! I remember talking about this very thing happening over 20 years ago when rates about 8-9%, we always wondered if the Fed would ever be stupid enough to ever go to 0 or below. Look out below! Pension funds will collapse and people loose out on what little interest they were making - for older people this can be a real big hit.