Clear!

The Fed has two patients on the table: the consumer-spending-driven economy, and the U.S. Dollar. It can only try to save one of them. It's more likely to injure or kill both.

Put down the paddles....

Fearing that financial-market turmoil and a weak housing market could cause the economy to spiral downward, the Federal Reserve moved aggressively for the second time in eight days to lower interest rates and signaled it was ready to do more as needed.

There was only a passing reference to inflation. The Fed said that it expects inflation to moderate in coming quarters, but also said it would watch the situation carefully. The Fed has now cut rates five times by a cumulative 2.25 percentage points.

Stocks jumped as soon as the Fed cut was announced. The dollar got hit hard. ((Which one do you think more people noticed? -- Jemison))