Fed is expected to cut interest rate to 2.25% : Wall Street Journal

Whenever chaos is expected on the market it almost always leads to an up day. I've been seeing things like this for months now and thought to myself that tomorrow has got to be a 500 point down day and it ends up being 90 points up. There is just no predicting this market because it's not based on sanity. Irrational speculation and fear is running this thing now. These traders are ruining the country with their speculation and short selling and this thing has got a mind of its own now. Lowering rates does NOTHING for the average Joe in this climate because the banks aren't lending and nobody is buying anything. Even me who is always quick to bring out the purchasing power is paying off all his debt and canceling services and trimming fat where it's not needed. If I am doing that then I can only imagine the rest of America who aren't doing as well. The rats in charge of this ship are trying to convince the masses that they are actually indeed sailors and not really rats. I would love to get a real finance guru's opinion on what they think is in store. My sister's next door neighbor is a big time finance geek with ivy league degrees up the ying yang and he doesn't seem to be too concerned about what's in store. Maybe they really do know what they're doing...

Originally posted by themillersdaughter

At the risk of being off topic...any suggestions for getting us out of the hole we're in?
Even crazy, wild, never gonna happen theories?

sure... how about banks which operate under Shirah law ?

that means no interest charged or paid, and the banks are regulated depositories of savings....
not schemeing money makers, that rely on the nickle & dime fees assessed the run of the mill depositors out of their slave labor wages...

As for the capitalists there would be investment banks...
who could invent monstrocities like credit swaps and all those unregulated derivatives... etc, - but that type of bank would be for the risk takers...

not for the 'savings vehicle' that banks pawn themselves off as being
to the average American, eeking thru life, pay-off-the-mortgage, send your kids to college, kind of 'un-sophisticated' wage earner that needs a safe place to stash cash!

[edit on 16-3-2008 by St Udio]

reply to post by Escrotumus


The free market is about as free as a supermarket. it's all being manipulated, and your sister's neighbor probably just knows this. Heck, it could even be what he does for a living.

When the market takes a couple-hundred-point plummet at the beginning of the day but claws back up in the afternoon to just a mild rout, you're not seeing "profit-taking," you're seeing massive interventions. The sentiment was sell!!! but somehow five hours later it's buy? There's a lot of secondary trading going on around these interventions and playing off them, and that does technically count as profit-taking, if nonetheless shameless.

[edit on 16-3-2008 by gottago]

Now that jpmorgan bought bear and they lowered the borrowing rate to 3.25% I wonder how the market will react tomorrow? Seems highly strange to me that all of these clowns got together on a weekend to hash out a deal off hours unless they saw mass hysteria tomorrow morning. The lemmings on wall street will no doubt eat this up and we will have another band aid on the economy for another 2 or 3 weeks. It sickens me that all of these guys will be bailed out and will all skate and the average American will get no help for homes that have lost half or more of their equity and now can't refi out of an ARM. It truly is criminal and riot worthy what is going on here.

Originally posted by OBE1
At Friday's close, the Fed Funds Futures, April contract, settled +0.1600 on the flat

CPI data. Pricing: 100% chance for 75bp...46% odds of 100bp.

At this point I'm calling 75bp...but there's a world of hurt out there tomorrow.

Ditto The Mogambo; WE'RE FREAKIN' DOOMED!






Its good to see a fellow Daily Reckoning reader. If ATS'ers really want good information and commentary on the whole world economic mess I can't recommend a better site then www.dailyreckoning.com...


[edit on 16-3-2008 by BlueRidge]

Originally posted by DimensionalDetective


Are these guys just not getting the picture? Are they not watching the inflation rates and what's happening to the dollar? Do they even care? Why don't they just cut the rate to zero and get it over with. lol

online.wsj.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

They know exactly what they're doing. Cut the interest rate, flood the market with dollars, start a panic run on the banks. They don't care because they're invested in foreign markets with Euros, Yen and Won. They WANT the economy to tank, so they can come back in and buy you, me and everyone else out.

Why do you think the indexes have fallen steadily? Why do you think oil is going up?

They want a worthless dollar. Because after it's worthless, they can come in and buy everything for pennies on the dollar. 90% isn't enough for them, they want it all.

reply to post by themillersdaughter


Just as there is Spring and Summer and Fall, there comes Winter and no matter what anyone does to stall or farestall what has already begun, the reshuffling of the deck has already begun and moving towards an apex/climax/high point of destruction around Dec 2012. Golbally, right down to locally, everything is moving towards a time of death and destruction; what survives this major cycle, will go on and fill the voids created by what doesn't survive; sort of like how sea creatures take over and habitate a sunken ship. The dollar will crash and pretty much all the so called conspiracies are true to one extent or another and you have to think about how you would want to deal with it to survive it. You are a woman, so I expect you should find a man and together make your plan and work your plan or just ride forward with whatever comes..eat, sleep, live and let tomorrow take care of itself. There is nothing anyone individually can do and those who are decidedly aggressive are going to be stomped by those who have been preparing for such...they have all the big guns and resource. Buy a few gold coins in small denominations; own a bike, stay in shape..not just because your health is everything but because you may need to be able to attract an able man to rescue you come the worst.

I thought yours were honest questions, so I have given you my honest answers. Use common sense.
l hope for the best, prepare for the worst, try to limit need and dependencies, try to find the way of leeast resistance...live. You can not change what is happening outside of yourself and the space you do control. Try not to waste your energies on what produces nothing..this site for example. The worst is all true, so , move on, get ready. Ultimately, everyting will be fine...these bodies are just temporary vessels and we are all evolving spirits that never die.
The planet will take care of itself, as it has many times...nothing like a Pole Shift to turn over the soil for a new corp.

Good luck

reply to post by themillersdaughter



Hey, I just noticed you live in Athens, Oh I used to live in German Village and got lost and stuck in the pitch black of "Old Man's Cave" near Athen, Oh ..it was a long time ago. You are in a good place to be for what is coming.

S/

reply to post by Angry Danish


Pfft...band-aid on a life-threatening chest wound if you ask me. I think China's the real culprit, here, though, creating a vampiric unfree trade system.

Well, the Fed cut was just announced, 1/4% percent in the discount rate, in an "emergency meeting" today.

Here's Bloomberg.

Less than expected, a 1/2 point would more fit an emergency, though not wanting to look too panicky on the one hand, and further undermine the dollar on the other, pretty much explains the move. They're getting boxed in.

The Sunday announcement is apparently meant to calm Tokyo.

Let's see how this shakes out.

Judging from the nikkei right now I would say that they are not calm. The entire world is down right now for the most part. Some way down and some just down. Could tomorrow be Black Monday 2008 after all? If we see a 500-700 point drop by noon and then it comes back by close then that will be proof that there is market manipulation going on. Couple these fiascoes with a run on the banks by concerned Americans (like myself) and it could be pucker time. Bernanke runs wild bailing out his boys and in turn is shafting the average Joe. Gotta love it when a Bush is in office....

these markets are so manipulated how can anyone even try to short them these days? stories are planted (while some have advanced knowledge) and they pump stocks up for a time.

i don't think anyone really has a handle on this mess. their are so many land mines waiting to be detonated, and the fed only has a shot or two left in their guns.

kondratieff winter appears to be coming and the feds are trying to induce "global warming".

FED FUNDS rate will be at 1% by June 1.

We could actually see Japanese style interest rates by September of .25%.

Bloomberg (link prior post) is revising this story every 1/2 hour or so and also reports the dollar dropping pretty badly against the yen and the euro, and everyone now expects a 1% reduction in the benchmark rate on the 18th.

Also all sorts of Fed rules are being relaxed and terms extended for banks and securities firms.

Phrases like "full-blown meltdown," "race to the bottom" and "extreme sense of urgency" are being bandied about.

Ugly.

reply to post by Escrotumus


Futures down -288 right now.. big loss, but that does not mean tomorow will be a bad day.. the odds are not good though.

One thing I found pretty sad..

Sterns was bought for 230+million dollars, less then 1/10th of its closing value on Friday.

If you sold on Friday, all your Sterns stock, you would average 30 a share..

If you did not, JP Morgan will be nice enough to replace your stock at 2 a share....

Feel sorry for who ever did not sell their stock before JP bought them out for a pathetic price like 230 million...

Originally posted by Rockpuck

Feel sorry for who ever did not sell their stock before JP bought them out for a pathetic price like 230 million...

Well, don't feel too sad for some--Joseph Lewis is reported to have lost about $1 billion on his stock (he was the second-largest shareholder, with 9.4 million shares).

He was worth about $2.5 billion beforehand, so I think he'll scrape by.

This is all working for the wealthy. Lots of small stock holders are needing liquid and selling off their small portfolios to buy gas and 6 dollar milk. The big boys with all the money and the fed in their pocket buy up all the stock for the long term.....VERY long term. These guys can deal with depression, and "corrections" no problem. In fact they get richer. They want these huge ups and downs...It is great for them when we panic and dump stock. Then they gift themselves shares for FREE. Right now the dollar is in a free fall, and the major holders have all their money bouncing around China and Germany. Hold your stock, buy more....and WAIT. Quit looking at the ups and downs, think long term.....oh and when the rebate check comes in....INVEST it...My biggest piece of advice is NEVER PICK YOUR OWN STOCK. Let a good firm like ING or whatever build you a portfolio. They move my stock around the world, and I dont have to do a thing. 14% up right now.....The only problem I have with stock is I cant stop buying SIRIUS...I know I know...But it is like crack! ........Also, I have friends that invest more money in one hour than I can in 5 years...They have not a worry in the world right now.

[edit on 17-3-2008 by TXMACHINEGUNDLR]

[edit on 17-3-2008 by TXMACHINEGUNDLR]

The Fed has no choice but to cut and ignore inflation.

Wall Street crash 1929 was based around the same circumstances we are having now, but interest rates were increased not cut, which resulted in a economic depression.

Dollar will correct itself, when the European Central Banks start to cut rates aggressively, along with the Bank of England and Swiss Bank, Dollar will comeback from its current lows.

It seems to be the endgame to me.

Global credit crunch is imminent.

The Saint Patrick's Day Massacre

Though there is indeed a lot of manipulation and propaganda clouding the picture, it can only obscure so much.

This is definitely not a good time to be overextended, and while there are always both winners and losers in every scenario, the situation worldwide -- not just in the U.S. -- is looking pretty grim right about now.

In addition to the economic consequences of all this, there will be social and political consequences as well.

It will be interesting to see whose strategy will prevail.

No matter what happens, however, no one gets out alive.




P.S. Time to invest in Ameros?