Along with Fed Chairman Bernanke’s speech last night, the other Fed members speaking today encouraged the markets to start debating, not whether we’ll get a rate cut, but about how large a cut they give us.  The Fed’s Poole said today that cushioning the stock market may be a byproduct of policy, but the concern is saving the economy, not necessarily saving the stock market from any decline.  At no time did any of them say anything to hint at not cutting rates. 

Secretary (of the Big Bail-out Schemes) of the Treasury Paulson said there would be more information next week about how the “subprime bailout” will work.  Wait, wasn’t he the same guy who came out a few weeks ago and said he (along with some broker/banks) had a great plan for an SIV bail-out?  That didn’t go over real well, and I have some major problems with the idea of the government being involved in any way with a bail-out of  “subprime”.  The idea of freezing interest rates is not a “moral hazard” (a term I don’t like), but a complicated legal issue, if the government has anything to do with it.  But, maybe I’m getting ahead of myself and the whole plan will be nothing more than the lenders working things out with homeowners to mutually save each other’s butts.  I’ll discuss this at more length in another post.

Just check in with us tonight and over the weekend!