> The Federal Reserve just cut its target for the fed funds rate by 0.25
> percentage points, and lowered the discount rate by the same amount.
> ...I'm starting to think the worst of the world financial
> crisis may be over.
For which we may thank Japan and Europe, who are finally acting like the metropoles they indeed are. Japan is pouring $30 billion into SE Asia, and of course the Godzilla of all bank bailouts will weigh in at a cool $500 billion or so (chump change compared to Japan's $3 trillion of liquid assets and trillion-dollar surplus vis-a-vis the US, of course). And now the EU, in one of those strange ironies of history, is so scared the US Bubble Bust will disrupt the euro (which will hit the streets in less than 3 months) that the ECB openly admits Euro rates need to be harmonize downwards, i.e. to Germany's 3.3% levels, and not up to Ireland's. This will save Italy's neck, for sure, and keep Iberia and Eastern Europe in the pink. The Red-Green Gov't of the future Berlin Republic is looking to close off a lot of tax loopholes for the rich and repair the welfare state, and the German unions are publicly demanding 6% wage increases (which, incidentally, they more than earned: German productivity levels continue to rise 5% a year). Norway's unions are pissed off at their miserly Government, and to top it off, Jospin has publicly pulled the plug on the MAI. Glorious, ain't it?
Speaking of leaps into the future, I recently got ahold of Red Hat's Linux CD-Rom and am about to boldly go where no Microsquash geeks have gone before -- will keep y'all informed of the results.
-- Dennis