Would The Fed Cut Rates This Close To Election

They need to stand aside.

 

Wont make a difference. The slide will continue. DOW 10000
The long painful slide towards 10000 will not stop.


FED has no capacity to manipulate. I heard that US debt could get downgraded in the next few weeks.

 

Yea they might cut again, however 10k-10500 is coming very soon......

 

How funny that all of the resident FED "bashers" on ET severely criticized them over their 3/4 point rate cut way back in January ( nearly 8 months ago ).

Gee, I wonder where the Economy would be right now if they hadn't cut rates back then?

How many major bank failures would there have been?

Can you say unemployment rate >10%?

Keep bashing guys.
You have no clue.
That is why you are only "paper-traders".

 

I'd say it's too late in the game for the Fed to influence the election.

I actually take the contrarian view, that a poor economy/high oil prices, actually help McCain more than Obama for a couple of reasons.

1. The perception is there that Obama will increase taxes, which most Americans think isn't smart to do when the economy is on the ropes.

2. The economy and oil are the most important topics right now, which takes away from BO's call for "free health care", "more affordable college" and ambiguous "change" messages.

 

Where are all the geniuses that were screaming the Fed should have hiked back in January? LOL

 

NO

 

Wait a second ....

This is more of an ideological argument more than anything. Those people (including myself) who believe that the Federal Reserve should be abolished, and/or that the US economy should be allowed to have a deep recession / depression, may still hold the view that the Fed should not have cut the Fed Funds rate to 2%.

Although these rate cuts may have delayed the inevitable recession, and/or reduced its severity, it only prolongs the inevitable. Decades of excess debt need to be taken out of the system.

Yes, unemployment would be higher than 6.1%.

Yes, there would be more bank failures.

These kinds of things will probably happen even with interest rate cuts, and if they don't, it may be because of government intervention - eg.

So far:

Bear Stearns
Freddie Mac
Fannie Mae

To come:

FRE part two
FNM part two

Possibilities further down the track:

GM
F
Washington Mutual
other medium to large banks

 

I'm over here.

It really comes down to the extent to which you believe that the government should intervene to prevent economic malaise.

Your view and my view are both neither right nor wrong; they are just different.

 

Know one is benefiting from the rate cuts, show us were the improvement is, and just show us the facts.