Is it just me, or is the .50 drop BAD for the econ?

Drop by .50, both fed funds and discount. What does that do other than ignight a happy, but short, rally.

Inflation? Hell Yes!

Interest rates?
Well, if the $ drops enough, long term rates rise by definition. Guess what is happening?

Curious to hear from REAL economists, or long term traders. I personally think this was a move to prop Wall St. short term.

Gonna make matters far worse down the road.

Guys, if you know me, I have multiple Econ degrees, and I'm an old guy, but this just baffles me. All opinions welcome, hazing is just a waste of time.

Cheers,

Jay

 

we've been mortgaging our future for years, we just took out a second on the previous ones. I would imagine '08 is not going to be pretty. Should make the elections quite humorous!

 

The Fed only thinks short term, there hasn't been a revolutionary Fed chairman since Volcker. They all want to please the public, now. The Fed's power has gone to its head, its micromanaging of every little problem in the economy while overlooking the consequences in the future are what's going to cause problems later.

Inflation is a problem, but its only controlled if you believe in the CPI and hedonic pricing. People aren't really aware of how bad inflation is for the economy, because its been a long time since recently that there has been rampant inflation. In the late 70s and early 80s, prices were skyrocketing and those on fixed incomes were hurting badly. Back then, Bernanke was writing about how to the Fed could have prevented the Great Depression by lowering rates faster. Ben is an ultra dove, he could give a rats as.s about inflation. Rampant inflation is much worse in the long run than having a couple of recessions.

 

Everything in the US is mortgaged, leveraged, indebted... even the good will of our trading partners (who foolishly take our $USD in exchange for their goods... then plow proceeds back in US Treasury securities).

It's all been creeping ahead on thin ice for a long time. We've all known that at some time, something has to give and somebody has to "eat it". Maybe now? We all get hurt, but who worst?

Paul Volker.. the world needs you back at the helm.

 

Its only going to create more problems and more bubbles somewhere else, liquidity was drying up for a reason and all they did was push more liquidity back into the system. Not good. They think 50BP cut is going to help the housing industry, not happening. I think were going to see 1-2 bankrupt homebuilders over the next 12-18 months.

 

let's see maybe bennie will save us with another mega-cut

 

oh - and this is pretty good - cherry on the cake!

Fears of dollar collapse as Saudis take fright
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor
Last Updated: 8:39am BST 20/09/2007

Saudi Arabia has refused to cut interest rates in lockstep with the US Federal Reserve for the first time, signalling that the oil-rich Gulf kingdom is preparing to break the dollar currency peg in a move that risks setting off a stampede out of the dollar across the Middle East.
Ben Bernanke has placed the dollar in a dangerous situation, say analysts
“This is a very dangerous situation for the dollar,” said Hans Redeker, currency chief at BNP Paribas.
“Saudi Arabia has $800bn (£400bn) in their future generation fund, and the entire region has $3,500bn under management. They face an inflationary threat and do not want to import an interest rate policy set for the recessionary conditions in the United States,” he said.
The Saudi central bank said today that it would take “appropriate measures” to halt huge capital inflows into the country, but analysts say this policy is unsustainable and will inevitably lead to the collapse of the dollar peg.
As a close ally of the US, Riyadh has so far tried to stick to the peg, but the link is now destabilising its own economy.
The Fed’s dramatic half point cut to 4.75pc yesterday has already caused a plunge in the world dollar index to a fifteen year low, touching with weakest level ever against the mighty euro at just under $1.40.
There is now a growing danger that global investors will start to shun the US bond markets. The latest US government data on foreign holdings released this week show a collapse in purchases of US bonds from $97bn to just $19bn in July, with outright net sales of US Treasuries.
The danger is that this could now accelerate as the yield gap between the United States and the rest of the world narrows rapidly, leaving America starved of foreign capital flows needed to cover its current account deficit - expected to reach $850bn this year, or 6.5pc of GDP.
Mr Redeker said foreign investors have been gradually pulling out of the long-term US debt markets, leaving the dollar dependent on short-term funding. Foreigners have funded 25pc to 30pc of America’s credit and short-term paper markets over the last two years.
“They were willing to provide the money when rates were paying nicely, but why bear the risk in these dramatically changed circumstances? We think that a fall in dollar to $1.50 against the euro is not out of the question at all by the first quarter of 2008,” he said.
“This is nothing like the situation in 1998 when the crisis was in Asia, but the US was booming. This time the US itself is the problem,” he said.
Mr Redeker said the biggest danger for the dollar is that falling US rates will at some point trigger a reversal yen “carry trade”, causing massive flows from the US back to Japan.
Jim Rogers, the commodity king and former partner of George Soros, said the Federal Reserve was playing with fire by cutting rates so aggressively at a time when the dollar was already under pressure.
The risk is that flight from US bonds could push up the long-term yields that form the base price of credit for most mortgages, the driving the property market into even deeper crisis.
“If Ben Bernanke starts running those printing presses even faster than he’s already doing, we are going to have a serious recession. The dollar’s going to collapse, the bond market’s going to collapse. There’s going to be a lot of problems,” he said.
The Federal Reserve, however, clearly calculates the risk of a sudden downturn is now so great that the it outweighs dangers of a dollar slide.
Former Fed chief Alan Greenspan said this week that house prices may fall by “double digits” as the subprime crisis bites harder, prompting households to cut back sharply on spending.
For Saudi Arabia, the dollar peg has clearly become a liability. Inflation has risen to 4pc and the M3 broad money supply is surging at 22pc.
The pressures are even worse in other parts of the Gulf. The United Arab Emirates now faces inflation of 9.3pc, a 20-year high. In Qatar it has reached 13pc.
Kuwait became the first of the oil sheikhdoms to break its dollar peg in May, a move that has begun to rein in rampant money supply growth.

 

Inflation is good right now - it will but a substantial ding in the consumer's debt.

 

So overall 30 yr mortgage rates are going up and 1 yr CD yr CDs are going down. Savers get penalized and new homebuyers pay higher rates. So who does this rate cut help?



National Rates
OVERNIGHT AVERAGES
Rates may include points.
30 yr fixed mtg 5.95% up
48 month new car loan 6.92%
1 yr CD 4.78% down

 

Oh thats easy, Goldman Sachs, see their stock was $160 well now it's 205, and they just announced they have set aside 16 billion for pay, up from last year. Bet if the stock was still 160 or lower they could not do that.

And is that treasury guy from Goldman, ah well wada ya no.