Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Federal Reserve Cuts Rates. It's About Time.

They should have done this at their meeting. The market was gagging on itself at the time and failure to do so was a big mistake. I don't know if there was some administrative delay to gaining the ability to pay interest on bank reserves or what. Now that they are going to buy commercial paper, this was pretty much a certainty. In fact, this data has likely been discounted by the markets. The lower Federal Funds rate may help the frozen commercial paper market. May. As I said before, I would have ratcheted it down to half a percent. Even if it is temporary. While officials fiddled with this massive bailout scheme in Congress, this issue was left to rot. This should have been taken back on the 16th. No excuses for this three week delay.

Update: I didn't realize the global central bankers united in this move. Let's all join the Soviets to celebrate central planning once again. It works so well. Wait till the communists in China really crank it up in an attempt to save their economy. It will be a glorious day for central planners.

posted by TimingLogic at 8:56 AM