Archive for January 22nd, 2008
Fed Cuts Interest Rates 3/4 Point
January 22nd, 2008
In an emergency action to stave off a feared recession the Fed has cut interest rates by 3/4 of a point, the largest one-time cut in recent memory.
Markets have been going down all over the world over recession worries and now the Fed has taken action.
The Fed said it was cutting the federal funds rate, the interest that banks charge each other on overnight loans, to 3.5 percent, down by three-fourths of a percentage point from 4.25 percent.
The Fed action was the most dramatic signal it can send that it is concerned about a potential recession in the United States. It marked the biggest one-day move by the central bank in recent memory.
The Fed decision was taken during an emergency telephone conference with Fed officials on Monday night. Those discussions occurred after global financial markets had plunged Monday as investors grew more concerned about the possibility that the United States, the world’s largest economy, could be headed into a recession.
In a brief statement, the Fed said it had decided to cut the federal funds rate “in view of a weakening of the economic outlook and increasing downside risks to growth.”
Only time will tell whether it’s the right thing at the right time. I’m not an economist so I don’t know.
Posted in 
Tuesday Tid-Bits
January 22nd, 2008
Who knew? Body heat could be the answer to our energy woes.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — A Swedish company plans to harness the body heat generated by thousands of commuters scrambling to catch their trains at Stockholm’s main railway station and use it for heating a nearby office building.
Real estate firm Jernhusen AB believes the system can provide about 15 percent of the heating needed for a 13-storey building being built next to the Central Station in the Swedish capital.
“It just came up at a coffee meeting last summer. Somebody suggested: why not do something with all this heat in the station?” project leader Karl Sundholm said.
Will today be the end of the Fred Thompson campaign?
It’s over, Fredheads. It was good while it lasted.
About the best thing conservatives can hope for at this point, I think, is Romney/Thompson. McCain may have the media in a trance right now, but Romney’s got the lead in delegates (early as it is), and with conservative big wigs like Rush Limbaugh and others having it out for McCain you’ve got to think things will swing his way.
Talk about hearing the good news with the bad:
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Nurses have a lower risk of dying from several different conditions compared with individuals in the general population, according to the findings of a large Canadian study of registered nurses (RNs).
However, the researchers also found that the risk of melanoma, the most deadly type of skin cancer, climbed with the number of years a nurse spent in her profession.
A subgroup of nurses who worked in hospitals or medical-surgical specialties had an increased risk of lung cancer.
The increased risk with longer-term work could be related to occupational exposures to carcinogens, such as radiation and certain drugs, while disruption of circadian rhythms due to shift work could also be a factor, Dr. Helen Dimich-Ward of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and her colleagues suggest.
A prediction from Laura Lee Donoho.
I’m making this statement today. It doesn’t matter that McCain won the South Carolina primary or that Huckabee came in second place. Guiliani’s hopes to win in Florida won’t matter. Whether or not Fred Thompson withdraws and throws his support to McCain, it will not matter. At the end of all this confusion, Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee for President.
And what’s more, he will win. Mitt Romney will be our next President.
In the long range scheme of things, it really is the little things that matter most in this life.
Pay it forward people, pay it forward.
I hope this Tuesday is good to you and yours.
Republicans take note..you are allowed to challenge the mighty Clinton machine
January 22nd, 2008
Barack Obama: “I can’t tell who I’m running against sometimes.”
The gloves are off.
If Obama must defend his campaign on two fronts, then it is only fair to make the former first couple understand he will not take it lying down. If you listen to the crowd reaction, I think there are many who agree with his position.
Also,Bryan at Hot Air has posted other videos of this debate. Check out this one in which the discussion turns to Bill Clinton being the first Black President.
I wholeheartedly agree with him when he writes this about that portion of the debate:
It’s sad that Bill Clinton was given the designation of being the country’s first black president. He’s not black. It’s weird that I have to point that out, but it’s true. When this country finally does elect a black president, he or she will have been robbed of some of their achievement by this nonsense about Clinton. Clinton didn’t deserve the distinction and he did everything to disgrace the office, which hopefully no one who follows him will emulate. So as I said, it’s sad that Toni Morrison gave Clinton that particular designation because, among other things, Barack Obama had to answer tonight’s inane question about it. He can’t just answer straight up “No†without running the risk of coming off as churlish or divisive. So he does the best he can with what is basically an insulting question.
Let me just add that the Mrs. Clinton’s answer at the end of the clip of “I think that can be arranged,” may have come off cute to some, but if I were African American I would take that as a slap. That answer indicates that she somehow believes her former Oval Office co- occupant indeed deserves this distinction.
