Late yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon, the Federal Reserve slashed its target for the overnight federal funds rate to a range of 0 to 0.25 percent. That may sound like meaningless gobbledygook, but it’s not. It’s an all-time record low. Read the rest of this entry »

With all of the recent news regarding the Fed cutting rate, the Fed’s anticipated rate cut on March 18th, 2008 and some rates going up, it may be difficult to keep track of which rate we are all taking about. The Fed and the economic headlines often use the word “rate” to refer to a variety of interest rates that help steer the economy and provide liquidity to the credit market.

In most cases, whenever one uses the word “rate” and the Fed in a single sentence, they are usually referring to the Federal Funds Rate. Read the rest of this entry »