The Fed Rate Cut

On this day in history...

The Spanish expedition established the first permanent European settlement in North America, St. Augustine, in 1565.

The Dutch surrendered New Amsterdam to the British, who renamed it New York, in 1664.

NY Athletic Club formed in 1868.

1st appearance of " The Pledge of Allegiance" was published in The Youth's Companion in 1892 to commemorate the 400 anniversary of Columbus' discovery of America.

Gaeston, Texas was struck by a hurricane that killed an estimated 8000 people in 1900.

The comic strip "Blondie," created by Chic Young, was first published in 1930.

A peace treaty with Japan was signed by 49 nations in San Francisco in 1951.

President Gerald Ford granted an unconditional pardon to former President Richard Nixon in 1974.

Today is International Literacy Day, which was designated by UNESCO in 1965.

Today is also the second annual International Angel Day, which is dedicated to children.


The Fed Rate Cut

Well, even though, the Fed stated that the real estate market and mortgage debacle are not directly related to the overall health of our general economy. They must take note of the recent jobs report. With more and more layoffs and foreclosures, they is almost no way that they can get away without a rate cut. I think that almost everyone would agree that this is certain. But now the question comes into play of how much of a rate cut. Many feel that it should be 100 basis points (1%). I doubt if the Fed will go to that extent. I'm pretty sure that they would rather due only a 1/4% cut, but this is not enough. It has to be at least a 1/2% cut to be of any value at this point in time. We'll see when they meet on the 18th.

To further enforce this feeling, Countrywide announced that it was cutting its workforce by 12,000 jobs, which is approximately 20% of its work force. Even IndyMac, which actually noted a profit recently, is cutting its workforce by 1,000, which is approximately 10% of its employees. But this extends way beyond just the mortgage and real estate industries. Office Depot it cutting back on store openings. They only plan on opening 100 stores, down from 150 of earlier this year.

This is affecting us all. It is unfortunate that Congress and the government can not agree on how to handle this situation. I am not proposing helping out the lenders, for they helped create this situation that we are all facing, but something needs to be done to reduce the foreclosures that are on the horizon and I think that there are more there than most can imagine.

Til next time...Marc It Sold!