Posted on 03/15/2020 2:12:17 PM PDT by billyboy15
The Federal Reserve, saying “the coronavirus outbreak has harmed communities and disrupted economic activity in many countries, including the United States,” cut interest rates to zero on Sunday and launched a massive $700 billion quantitative easing program to shelter the economy from the effects of the virus.
Facing highly disrupted financial markets, the Fed also slashed the rate of emergency lending at the discount window for banks by 125 bps to 0.25%, and lengthened the term of loans to 90 days.
The Fed also cut reserve requirement ratios for thousands of banks to zero. In addition, in a global coordinated move by centrals banks, the Fed said the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, the Federal Reserve, and the Swiss National Bank took action to enhance dollar liquidity around the world through existing dollar swap arrangements.
The banks lowered the rate on these swap line loans and extended the period for such loans. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is scheduled to hold a press conference via telephone at 6 pm eastern time. The actions by the Fed appeared to be the largest single day set of moves the bank had ever taken, mirroring in many ways its efforts during the financial crisis that were rolled out over several months.
The quantitative easing will take the form of $500 billion of treasuries and $200 billion of agency-backed mortgage securities. The Fed said the purchases will begin Monday with a $40 billion installment.
The Fed cut rates to a new range of 0% to 0.25% from 1% to 1.25% and said it would remain there “until it is confident that the economy has weathered recent events and is on track to achieve its maximum employment and price stability goals.”
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
I suppose if they are already possessed, giving them a second dose wouldn’t make much difference when viewed from a distance.
This is probably aimed at the overseas futures markets, which I believe open this afternoon or evening.
Of course, this won’t help restore disrupted supply flows from China or compensate lost sales....
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Bloomber TV is showing stock futures + 9%
Numbers are moving so it looks like live trading today
Change the question.
How does allowing airlines/restaurants/small businesses to go bankrupt, help the Average American Taxpayer? With tall of those businesses out of business, what happens to the tax receipts received by the IRS?
I purchased shares of the following, con ed, boston scientific and diaego
No panic here
I have a feeling POTUS asked the Fed guy whether he’d prefer throwing a life ring out to the economy; or have the Fed terminated and disbanded......or something close to that.
Test run. Will subside and govt will say see, you need us. Will have greater control and greater flexibility on many issues including financial, medical, food supply change, military etc sorry but I’m a conspiracy guy so...
“Who is going to buy a house when they can’t go to a restaurant? Nobody.”
Not sure I follow your logic. If I own a home presumably I can cook food there, don’t need to eat out. I may have a different set of lifestyle priority rules than you.
If they make money worthless does it matter who “wins”?
What markets are these Futures traded on?
Don’t bother, scrap prices are lower than the DJIA.
This is problem, because the last times rates were this low, banks were borrowing money in order to invest in the market...not loan out. With removing any ratios on the banks, the potential for an anything goes approach is very real.
Exactly. Shut down the markets for a couple weeks and let the Wu Flu blow through the country. No reason to give the banksters free money when they will just use it to manipulate the markets.
“Enough or too frightening”
People are already frightened to death by the media and for no good reason. Unfortunately the panic as unwarranted as it is can cause extreme financial hardship.
I expect those holding bonds will do well and with stocks driven down as far as they have we may see companies borrowing heavily to buy back their own stock. It would be a good move because when this faux emergency ends the markets will react strongly and positively.
Definitely fast food (quick service restaurants) nearly doubled prices during that period of time. My standard breakfast went from $3.37 to $5.79 @ BK. Similar at other chains. Partly due to minimum wage going up and other factors.
Banks took on risks in 2008 and should not have been bailed out when markets turned against them.
Airlines are being FORCED by the government to shut down flights and lose money.
The two are so different they are not even in another universe.
I think the concern is that the system would lock up like it almost did in 2008.
Of course, no Fed policy changes would be complete without the media stating that this leader or this celebrity has tested + for COVID-19. Those + results will keep coming - for weeks. It's not something that President Trump can easily control - and those sorts of media stories have an effect on market sentiment.
Frankly for me, the fact that a political leader or celebrity tests + for COVID-19 is not even in the ballpark when I think about the older people who are especially scared and vulnerable. People pon FR that make flippant remarks about older COVID-19 victims are, well, asses.
I think the market runs an a fair amount of investor sentiment - and I think the media (I'm looking at you CNBC) try to manipulate that sentiment to the detriment of President Trump. Sorry, I ranted.
Wow, what a stupid comment.
What to start a panic or a run on banks? Close the markets.
I think the “Stock market prices” we’ve seen ARE the Inflation..
I disagree. I think it is warranted. The old flatten the curve thing. Is the need exaggerated? We’ll see.
Of course, no matter what the news the idiot MSM will try to whip it up and whip Trump with it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.