Word: fed
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board famously described his job as "taking the punch bowl away just when the party is getting good." Current Fed chief Ben Bernanke wishes it were so. With stock markets around the world reeling, and with a deep housing slump in the United States crippling growth in the world's largest economy, Bernanke's Fed is now frantically ladling the punch out - even though almost everyone already has a brutal hangover. The Fed's surprise January 22nd rate cut - it slashed its key interest rate three quarters of a percentage point, and signaled that...
...Asia's markets rebounded smartly on Wednesday, after the Fed's move, but the fact remained that investors worldwide were finally absorbing an unavoidable truth: the United States, still the biggest market for the world's exports, appears to be in real economic trouble. Most economists now believe the U.S. is either already - or soon will be - in its first recession since 2001, and that this one could be a doozy. "The asset bubbles underpinning the US economy have started to unwind the other way," says Stephen Roach, Chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia. "This recession was triggered by the bursting...
...long? Economists at Morgan Stanley believe the Fed rate cuts - past and future - are part of what it calls the "Great Global Monetary Easing of 2008," which will begin to spur a new round of worldwide growth next year. But getting from here to there is going to be painful. Demand for everything from iron ore mined in western Australia to toys manufactured in southeastern China is already slowing, because for the first time in decade, the "key driver of the global economy, the U.S. consumer, seems to have finally thrown in the towel," says Xie. If that's true...
...single trading day, Jan. 21, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index plunged 8.6%, Tokyo's Nikkei 5.7% and Mumbai's Sensex 12.9%. It was a worldwide mini-meltdown, and the Federal Reserve Board wasn't about to let that go unanswered. Before the U.S. markets had even opened, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke - not a man known for dramatic gestures - slashed a key interest rate three-quarters of a percentage point. The surprise move arrested the rout, and the markets have since rallied, but investors are left to absorb an unavoidable truth: the U.S., still the world's biggest market...
...Whatever kind of correction the U.S. is headed for, policymakers don't want it to happen all at once. The Fed's rate cuts and the roughly $145 billion stimulus plan currently being mooted by the White House and Congress are all about pumping enough demand into the economy to make the journey downhill smooth and gradual. Consumer spending used to make up about 67% of all the economic activity in the U.S., but over the past few years, it's ratcheted up to around 72%. "If we take the 5 percentage points out this year, it will...