The discount rate is now at or below the inflation rate, well below the inflation rate using real world inflation.There are no longer any monetary tools to use that will work, it has to be fiscal (spending), because any lower, and the Fed is paying people to borrow money.
Still, it makes sense, as GDP growth in the 4th quarter was only at a .6% rate annual rate. When you consider the fact that inflation is (at least) 3%, this means that real GDP is falling at more than a 2% rate.
The dollar has fallen currently at $1.4761:€1.0000, and $1.0003:$1.0000 CDN, so the Canadian dollar is above unity again.
And the credit crunch is spreading all over the world, the Swiss bank UBS AG has reported its biggest loss ever, in US real-estate related issues.
We also have Morgan Stanley using some serious weasel words to not call its write downs a loss, when it, "reclassified $7 billion of funded assets and $279 million in unfunded assets from Level 2 to Level 3."
Of course, the fact that the FBI has dropped some subpoenas on their asses isn't good news eithr.
Lever 3 assets are ones in which buyers are not easy to find, and it's rapidly getting to the point where the buyers are getting harder to find than straight Republicans.
It looks like the bond insurers will be downgraded below AAA, which in addition to closing off a lot of their business, and making it harder to raise capital, will likely force investment banks towrite down $70 billion more.
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