Surely they wouldnt let the worst happen, would they?
The subprime debacle in the last few weeks seemed to come from nowhere to suddenly infuse panic into financial markets from stocks to mortgages to hedge funds to banks to precious metals to consumer spending. Of course, as I have explained in my newsletters and daily updates (and in my book), it did not come from nowhere at all. Blind Freddy should have seen it coming. Nor was it sudden. It took a lot longer to happen than I ever imagined.
As at the date of writing (August 18), central banks around the world (the European ECB panicking the most) have tipped hundreds of billions of dollars into the system to try and combat the sudden fear of and thus freeze on lending, even from one bank to another. And now the Federal Reserve has lowered its discount rate, which is the desperado last resort that banks can turn to for loans if there is nowhere else, by 0.5%. Will this work? Will this stop the hemorrhaging in the credit markets which threatened to send mortgage rates through the roof and stock and other financial markets into a dive, not to mention the economy?
In a word, NO!
There is a mistaken...