Fed Expected To Cut Interest Rates Again
WASHINGTON -- Policymakers at the Federal Reserve are expected to cut a key interest rate at their meeting Tuesday.
The rate is now 4.5 percent, and analysts are looking for another drop of one-quarter of a percentage point.
There's some speculation that the central bank could chop it by a half point.
The Fed has cut rates twice this year, but the credit crunch and housing stress have snowballed, leading Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke to signal that one more cut might be needed.
Banks, financial companies and other investors have lost billions from loans made to people with spotty credit or from putting money into securities backed by those subprime mortgages.
Investors in the United States and abroad have grown more wary of buying new debt, thereby making the credit crunch worse.
All that has added to the turmoil on Wall Street.
WASHINGTON -- Policymakers at the Federal Reserve are expected to cut a key interest rate at their meeting Tuesday.
The rate is now 4.5 percent, and analysts are looking for another drop of one-quarter of a percentage point.
There's some speculation that the central bank could chop it by a half point.
The Fed has cut rates twice this year, but the credit crunch and housing stress have snowballed, leading Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke to signal that one more cut might be needed.
Banks, financial companies and other investors have lost billions from loans made to people with spotty credit or from putting money into securities backed by those subprime mortgages.
Investors in the United States and abroad have grown more wary of buying new debt, thereby making the credit crunch worse.
All that has added to the turmoil on Wall Street.
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