Fed Cuts by Three-Quarter Point,
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, feds, rate cuts March 18th, 2008A divided Federal Reserve cut interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point, delivering less than the markets hoped for despite the magnitude of the move.
The Fed’s policy-making Federal Open Market Committee voted 8-2 to cut its short-term interest rate target to 2.25% from 3%, bringing cumulative declines in less than two months to two percentage points, the most rapid pace of easing in years.
But it was less than the full percentage point investors had come to expect after the Fed’s dramatic intervention to prevent Bear Stearns Cos. over the weekend signaled a heightened degree of concern that the severe credit crunch had put the stability of the financial system at risk.
