That unprecedented .75% rate cut was the Hail Mary. It staved off a stock market loss, for now, but that's about it. The chattering class is already saying it was an act of desperation. The Fed rarely makes rate cuts between meetings, and has never made one of this magnitude. In fact, the very magnitude of the cut was last seen in 1984 - ancient history when you're the Fed and you job is to manage the economy on an ongoing basis.
And now there's talk of an additional .50% cut next week when these financial geniuses meet again.
Alan Greenspan ranks very low on my list of favorite people, but at least he could do the needed triage and life support to smooth out the bumps and keep things in check. To be sure, Greenspan had presidents who relied on him and trusted him .... and more importantly, listened to him. A lot of Greenspan's stuff was very bad for folks like us, but at least he kept the lid on things. Not so with Helicopter Bennie. He's not that bright to start with. Then there's the fact that he works for a moron who can't seem to listen to anyone who knows better. (Even Mike "Arabian Horse" Brown tried to warn the Bush boy that New Orleans really, no shit, **was** drowning.)
And where did this $100B to $150B stimulus package come from? That is, bluntly, farting into the wind. The Republicans *and* the Democrats seem to be selling the same bag of horse turds.
But back to the point. How dumb is Bernanke that he didn't see this coming and was ahead of the curve? Why were things so poorly controlled that the only thing they could do is the Hail Mary? All that did was say to the world "We Don't Have A Fucking Clue What We're Doing." How else can the world react?
One of two things is true.
Either ...... They really have no clue what they're doing.
Or ...... They want it to happen so as to wipe out the middle class once and for all.
If someone just sniffed around a bit, that someone would find all sorts of serious negligence and actual criminal activity. But of course, no one will do that. Surely none of the candidates, at least judging by what they've been saying on 'the trail'.