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Article: Fed slashes funds rate once again Stocks plunge as key interest rate cut by a quarter point
- Article from:
- Oakland Tribune
- Article date:
- December 12, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2007 Oakland Tribune. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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WASHINGTON -- The Federal Reserve dropped its most important
interest rate to a nearly two-year low on Tuesday and left the door
open to additional cuts to prevent a housing and credit meltdown
from pushing the economy into a recession. A disappointed Wall
Street took a nosedive.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and all but one of his colleagues
agreed to trim the federal funds rate by one-quarter percentage
point to 4.25 percent.
The rate reduction, the third this year, was needed to energize
national economic growth, Fed officials explained. The deepening
housing slump is affecting the behavior of consumers and businesses
alike, they said.
"Economic growth is slowing, reflecting the ...