'All Available Tools': What the Fed's Moves Really Mean

Obama will save us?? What a joke!!! All we need is MORE corruption...yes MORE corruption will help...NOT! The politicians got us into this mess with "EVERYBODY needs financing so they can make the no lose investment in purchasing a house whether they can afford it or not". More credit for everyone. Free drinks for everyone. Enjoy until the next time the hangover brings us to our senses!!! Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead!!! Load up on advisors that reek of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stench on their hands...that will get the job done...NOT!!!!!!

even tat private bank can't fix crap.....this is gettin' funny....sad the American people don't put a stop to it....but until Congress gets a set of ba!!s.........Mr B is jus gonna carry on!

This is killing the savers and those on fixed-income, who won't earn anything on their savings. Instead of reducing the interest rates drastically like this why don't we send big checks to all the tax payers with restrictions on how to spend it (basically use it to reduce their debt and not use it to leverage up to more debt); this way everyone benefits rather than just borrowers. Another option would be to declare a tax holiday for a few months to a year or more, as necessary.

My question is what other tools do they have left... print money or sell bonds or start a war or run for the hills.. how's GM doing anyway

I like the point MEETDAVEOO6 made!!

The FED has used its tool to screw the common man and the tax payer and doesn't need any more tools to screw any further. It just needs a hammer to nail the coffin of the US Financial sysytem which has died.

Having read somewhere, (wickepedia?) that for a relatively small (nowadays) fixed amount of $millions, the U.S. government has the right and power by law to buy the FED entirely, and that the U.S. treasury could then simply print its own currency, like Lincoln did during ther civil war when he had the treasury print 'greenbacks',--and the U.S. would not have to pay ANY interest on the new dollars. JFK was supposed to have done a similar thing prior to his death. Question: Is this a fact?

there are millions of responsible citizens who saved and stayed within thier means who will be affected by a "maket correction" somehow we need to help these people and let the abusers fall I'm not smart enough to figure it out but I fell better because I dont think anyone else has either

Can you say hyper inflation? I knew you could.

The leadership won't speak honestly about it, because they fear that if they do, it will erode confidence even more. But their actions speak louder than their words. This is not just another recession, such as we have had a dozen times or more, since World War II. What is starting now, is a full-blown depression. Whether it will be as long or as deep as the 1930's cannot be accurately forseen, but Bernanke and Paulson's actions reveal that this is what they believe is happening. Best investment right now, would be a rototiller and some gardening tools.....

YOU HAD ALL THE TOLLS. IS IT SHOVEL, MATTOCK,TRACTOR,CEMENT,IRON, MAN-POWER FOR ALL INFRA STUCTURE?

John H... absolutely the only way out of this mess. You are exactly right, in the future, people will be much more intelligent and, if we get through it as a cohesive group of people call Americans, we will know exactly what to fight and why.

The Fed. is not able to repair the economy with easy money. Easy money is what got us into this mess. Let the free markets repair the damage and let the market set the interest rates. Look what is happening to the dollar, it is going down against the euro and the yen. . There is no such thing as a free lunch. We will have hyperinflation in the near future, to pay for the reckless actions taken by the fed. and the treasury.

Face it. Now that people can not get rid of their credit card debt by refinancing their mortage they are going to start defaulting on that. That in itself is bad enough but the real problem is that all of the people that are in credit card trouble can not purchase any products to keep the economy going. Since a lot of people are in that catagory there is absulutaly no way things can turn around till housing prices increase to the the level that their mortages are at so that they can take equity out again. Since the debt has to be taken care of first, before they can start to spend freely again, the houses have to appreciate to the mortage level plus the debt load to start this economy moving again. Any one that thinks housing prices are going to turn around in a year or two should just study the real estate bubble of Japan. Their prices are still below the peak. All the government can hope for is having the market fall at a slow steady rate instead of an all out crash which put us in depression instead of a horrible recession.

Jake - Wednesday December 17, 2008 12:13PM EST No interest doesn't make money free. It's free only if you do not have to pay it back.

I got a pre-screened offer in the mail yesterday from JP Morgan Chase Banking inviting me to borrow up to $50,000. The letter said 'use the money for things like education, a vacation, etc...' This is what the banks are doing with the TARP funds: inviting people to go way out beyond their means. College classes, way too expensive these days, one course $4,000, foggitaboutit ! Vacation? Where to? The TARP rescue is a failure. Who wants to borrow? Nobody except a deadbeat wanting to spend opm before a giant flame out. Here we go again. Subprime city. Go and laugh at the idiots running the Fed and the Treasury.

Johnny Ike.. well hurry up and drive the tractor, jump off with a shovel in one hand and pick in the other and go to it man. What are you going to build or fix? Oh damn, are you doing this for free? Wow, you must have a lot of food and money stored away to do it until someone actually decides to pay you for it. Not to mention you must be in pretty good shape and drove tractors, etc. in your previous life.

No interest doesn't make money free. It's free only when you don't have to pay it back.

The FED as stated is the source of all corruption. IT IS NOT A FEDERAL AGENCY ...people wake up....IT IS !))% OWNED BY THE TOP NY BANKERS WHO CONTINUE TO SCEW US nationalize the FED...IT should be owned by the US tax payers. Banks can be private but the FED should be a US owned entity....they charge interest on our money everyday for heir own benefit. Look at Madoff....do you think he is the only crook in NY...it is a big tribe fo crooks and they control the investment banks, finance regulation and the SEC.....start with the FED and go from there....liberate US from their Debt

Johnny...when they said Available Tools I think they were talking about Us.. ha ha