I would expect nothing else from Wall Street:
"Fearing Slide in Economy, Fed Cuts Its Discount Rate" by LOUIS UCHITELLE
The Federal Reserve, saying for the first time that the recent disorder in the financial markets has raised the risk of an economic downturn, took the unusual step yesterday of encouraging the nation’s banks to borrow directly from the Fed, particularly to support home mortgage lending.
The early morning announcement of a drop in the so-called discount rate, made even before the stock market opened, sent Wall Street soaring as relieved investors celebrated the Fed’s tacit acknowledgment that it had made a mistake last week in playing down concerns over the spreading distress in the credit markets. After falling for six straight days, the Dow Jones industrial average shot up 233.30 points, to 13,079.08.
The Fed, while not yet cutting a rate that wields more influence over the economy, moved to stimulate lending in part because it recognized that even well-to-do families with good credit ratings were having difficulty getting mortgages. That problem, radiating through the housing market and then the broader economy, had “the potential to restrain economic growth,” the Fed said.
[Oh, so that's why they moved on it! The wealthy were bitchin'!!!
They DON'T GIVE A FUCK about Joe. Q. Sixpack getting FORECLOSED ON!
Just about the RICH FOLK getting their fucking grubby hands on MORE DOUGH!!!!]
The sudden action also suggested that the nation’s central bankers were worried that a major financial institution might be at risk of failure.... the Fed was likely to go further... if its action yesterday does not help to shore up confidence on Wall Street and elsewhere in the economy.
Jan Hatzius, chief United States economist for Goldman Sachs: “What the Fed is really saying is that this recovery is more in danger than it has been since it started nearly six years ago.”
[And a shit "recovery" at that!
All the money went to multinationals who either offshored or hired H1-B immigrants!]
The discount move, coupled with formal acknowledgment that the economy might be in trouble, represents.... the Fed’s admission that the economy might not be so healthy... as the Fed braces for the possibility of a weakening economy, dragged down by a shrinking housing market.
Fed policy makers and Treasury officials said that in cutting the discount rate, the Fed’s principal goal was to shore up the market for creditworthy mortgages, including those for more expensive homes.
While that market is primarily for more affluent borrowers, Fed officials said they were worried that average Americans would suffer, too, if the troubles in the so-called jumbo mortgage market infected the rest of the economy.
[Yeah, they will only act when it might affect the rich folk.
When you gonna get it through your heads, Amurka, that this SHIT ECONOMY is NOT FOR YOU!!!
It is to ENRICH the RICH beyond their wildest dreams of avarice -- as it ALWATYS HAS BEEN!]
The collapse of so many subprime mortgage securities had spread to the larger market, and lenders of high-quality mortgages were having trouble selling the loans they made.
The Fed is bailing out hedge funds and others who borrowed billions of dollars to invest in subprime mortgages, ignoring the risk that many of the low-income households who got these mortgages would default.... risk takers can sell bad investments with less of a loss.
[Even though you are homeless and fucked, the investors are o.k., so BUCK UP, shit-eater!]
Alan Blinder, a Princeton University economist and a former Fed governor:
“You would be mitigating their problems. I would count that as a social cost of saving the economy.”
[But no welfare for you poor folk!]
What remains unclear is how much damage, if any, the economy has suffered from the market turmoil... data documenting any damage takes weeks to collect. Home construction is clearly down, and recent economic reports show that consumption has weakened.
Mark Gertler, a New York University economist who did research with Mr. Bernanke when the Fed chairman was a Princeton professor:
“If there was evidence of a significant decline in spending, that would induce the Fed to cut rates, but there is no evidence of a significant decline in spending.”
[Hey, look, an ECONOMIC LIAR!]
The earliest damage would show up in consumer sentiment. The University of Michigan’s Survey of Consumers released a poll yesterday showing that Americans were somewhat more pessimistic because of costly food and fuel, not the unfolding financial crisis."
[It's all the same ball of shit!!!!
Not included in the inflation numbers by the way, so the government is telling you the SHIT TASTES GOOD!
