Feds Slash Interest Rates To Spur Economy

The U.S. has teamed up with banks around the world to ease interest rates in hopes of preventing this global financial crisis from getting worse.

On Wednesday morning, the Federal Reserve cut a key interest rate to one-and-a-half percent, hoping cheaper loans to banks will lead to more loans for consumers and get money flowing through this ailing economy.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke hinted at the rate cut on Tuesday.
     
“So long as financial conditions warrant, we will continue to look for ways to reduce funding pressures in key markets,“ said Bernanke.

It’s part of a global effort between the U.S. and six other central banks around the world.

Britain will also spent 87 and a half billion dollars to bail out its banks whose stocks are now sinking.

“This is not a time for conventional thinking or outdated dogma, but for the fresh and innovative intervention that gets to the heart of the problem,“ said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Experts had called for the coordinated rate cut to help ease investors fears.

“I get up every morning and I think my 401k has lost about five percent of its value overnight, and this is morning after morning, this is sickening,“ said Robert McTeer the Former President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

But surprisingly some we caught up with on Wall Street aren’t worried about the near future:

“I’m more concerned about the immediate aftermath of this crisis resulting in a severe depression, where my neighbor might lose his job,“ said one man.

“I feel like it’s cyclical, it’s gonna come back again. And really, if everybody’s panicked, scared, it’s gonna be worse,“ said one woman.

Panic is exactly how European newspapers describe what’s happening in the markets.