And Another Rate Cut

Yes, he did it again. Bernanke cut the Fed Funds Rate by fifty basis points, bringing the benchmark rate to 3%. Now that the price of credit is officially below inflation, could the economy finally recover? I don’t think so. Although I’ve read some analyst opinions that some – very, very slim – chances exist that the Fed’s policy will succeed, the reality is that too many problems in the financial and housing sectors need to be solved. Home prices are more than 30% higher than they should be by historic standards, with California median prices 60% above the reasonable level. Until those come down, and that will be a slow, painful process for many a household, bank, lender, and investor, the Real Estate market will not begin to operate properly. With all the mortgages that are about to fail will come huge writedowns and losses at banks all over the world, slowing U.S. economy, higher rates of inflation and unemployment, and all the doom and gloom that those bring along. I don’t really see how changing the interest rate can warp the reality and all the inevitable processes that are slowly unwinding, but the Fed has a job to do, and they’re doing their best. Who knows, it might just work. And by the way, I’m not really keeping score but isn’t it funny how for three meetings in a row, there’s always one – and only one – member of the Fed that votes against a decision. It’s always a different person but I’m beginning to feel there’s a reason why they appoint someone to disagree with the majority. Perhaps it would “scare the markets” if everyone voted for the rate cut? Well… I think they’re quite spooked already; could it really get any worse?