Fed cuts two key rates by a quarter point....

[Bigmack]

Source: CNBC

The Federal Reserve cut the benchmark federal funds rate rate by a quarter-percentagepoint to 4.5 percent to buffer the economy against a housing downturn and tighter credit conditions.The central bank also cut the discount rate a quarter point.

Read more: http://www.cnbc.com/

---

Seeeee... everything's OK now.

(Oil just hit $94)

[soothsayer]

1. Ol' helicopter Ben printing more money and throwing it to the masses?

[AX10]

2. Inflation is going to be a real problem soon.

Remember the 1970's anyone? It's going to happen again.

Bernanke is not qualified for the job. He is not there to appease the easy monet traders on Wall Street. He is supposed to keep the economy in balance.

[AnneD]

3. What's this 'soon' business...

We already have inflation-it will just rise faster.

[harun]

8. Totally already happening, quite extensive too (n/t)

[Up2Late]

9. Exactly, they're just fudging the numbers and only talking "core" inflation to make things look O.K.

From milk to meat, US food prices spike upward

The rise in grocery costs is up more in the first six months of 2007 than in all of 2006.
By Patrik Jonsson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
and Bina Venkataraman | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

from the June 13, 2007 edition
Page 1 of 3

ATLANTA and BOSTON - A gallon of milk in Birmingham, Ala., is expected to cost $4.50 this summer, perhaps more. At Wetzel's Market in Glen Rock, Pa., the New York strip steaks that were on sale for $4.99 a pound last Fourth of July will be $6.99 this year. In Boston, some shoppers report checkout prices on certain items that are 30 percent higher now than last summer.

"Prices are incredible," says Suzanna Wyman, shopping Monday at Shaw's Supermarket in Boston's Back Bay. "Milk, I heard, is going up even more.... I love fresh peppers and vegetables, but they're too much. Cereal is very expensive compared to what you used to be able to get it for."

The reason people are smarting: Inflation in grocery aisles is up by more in the first six months of 2007 than in all of 2006. That means food costs are on track for the biggest annual percentage hike since 1980, according to the Labor Department. The anticipated 7.5 percent increase would readily outflank the 2.6 percent core inflation rate to date, which excludes food and energy. It's across every grocery aisle, too, from burgers to bagels, from duck to dumpling.

Added to sticker shock at the gas pump, high food prices, especially for meat, are forcing consumers to scrimp, coupon-clip, and ponder the possibilities of a deep freeze to take advantage of discounts, says Boyd Brady, an extension agent at Auburn University in Alabama....

(more at link) <http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0613/p01s01-usec.html>

[necso]

4. I think that this was the common expectation

(demand) of the big-money players, so perhaps the effects of this rate cut will be modest.

[fasttense]

5. It wont be a modest effect on the dollar. n/t

[necso]

7. Time will tell.

Certainly, there are those who'll look to profit from a falling dollar. And there are some powerful players who'll be displeased by a rate cut.

But I've been reading about a quarter-point cut for weeks, and the speculators may have already factored it into their speculations.

...

What, no preview on edit?

[Roland99]

6. Idiots. Short-sighted, bank-welfare-loving idiots.

[Maggie_May]

10. The feds job is the currency

Bernanke is doing a wonderful job of destroying it. Everything you buy is now about to go even higher while wall street lines their pockets. When was the last time that the government bailed you out? When was the last time the Fed lowered your interest on your home? When was the last time the Fed lowered you interest payment on your credit cards? Oil is going to be the big one guys its going to go through the roof. Today it was over 94$ it won't be long till its a 100$. Bernanke has not done his job he will drive the dollar into the ground.

[Yavin4]

11. Are We Inflating The Economy To Pay For The War?

Didn't we do this exact same thing in the 70s in order to pay for Vietnam?

[amandabeech]

13. Nixon put wage and price controls on everything toward the end of the war.

When he took them off, va-VOOM! Then when the Saudis wouldn't sell us oil, it was BLAST OFF!!!

Buy it all now, 'cause it will be three times as much when we finally get a Dem to jawbone him.

[girl gone mad]

12. whoopee!!

Hyperinflation!

[high density]

14. That sucks

"US citizens, please do not save any money. We'll help you spend by keeping in the interest rates ridiculously low."