By holding the bank-to-bank Fed Funds Rate at 2% and the Fed-to-bank Discount rate at 2.25% at their FOMC meeting today, the Fed proved that the financial storm that’s been blowing since August 2007 requires much more than rate cuts. It’s not so much about the price of money right now, but rather the availability [...]

Following their meeting today, the Federal Open Market Committee kept the bank-to-bank Fed Funds Rate at 2% and the Fed-to-bank Discount Rate at 2.25%, and said that “The Committee expects inflation to moderate later this year and next year, but the inflation outlook remains highly uncertain.” This is following their June 25 statement where they [...]

Following their June 24-25 meeting today, the Federal Open Market Committee kept the Fed Funds Rate at 2% and the Discount Rate at 2.25%, and said that “uncertainty about the inflation outlook remains high,” and “upside risks to inflation and inflation expectations have increased.” This is a slight shift from their April 30 meeting where [...]

The Federal Open Market Committee cut the Fed Funds Rate to 2% and the Discount Rate to 2.25% today, and implied that weak economic activity and inflationary threats (especially in energy and commodity prices) may offset each other. Since August, the Fed has cut the bank-to-bank Fed Funds Rate 3.25% (from 5.25% to 2.0%), and [...]

After today’s scheduled FOMC meeting, markets expected a Fed Funds Rate cut of 100 basis points, but the Fed only cut by 75 bps. The Fed Funds Rate, a bank-to-bank lending rate, now stands at 2.25%. The Prime Rate is Fed Funds + 3%, so Prime is now 5.25%. Home Equity Line of Credit 2nd [...]