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Pastimes : FED TALK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jeff Jordan who wrote (61)	1/4/2001 9:36:28 AM
From: GROUND ZERO™	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 94

Can Greenspan be voted out? GZ

To: Jeff Jordan who wrote (61)	1/4/2001 7:14:13 PM
From: Jeff Jordan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 94

Thursday January 4, 5:26 pm Eastern Time U.S. Fed cuts discount rate a quarter point WASHINGTON, Jan 4 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve on Thursday cut the U.S. discount rate by a quarter percentage point to 5.5 percent, following Wednesday's quarter-point cut that was meant to underline an even more aggressive reduction in the key federal funds overnight bank lending rate. The central bank said its board of governors had voted on the cut in the discount rate, the rate charged on Fed loans to commercial banks, unanimously at the request of all 12 regional Fed banks. The central bank -- which only moves the more symbolic discount rate at the request of regional Fed banks -- had said on Wednesday it was prepared to take this additional action if the regional banks requested it do so. In a statement issued that day when the Fed cut its fed funds rate half a point to 6 percent and lowered the discount rate to 5.75 percent, the central bank had said it stood ``ready to approve a further reduction of 25 basis points in the discount rate to 5.5 percent'' if regional Fed banks asked for such a move. The Fed cut in the fed funds rate was designed to give the economy a shot in the arm and avert an excessive slowdown. Changes in the discount rate are decided by the board of governors, while fed fund moves are voted on by the FOMC, which usually meets eight times a year. Wednesday's fed funds rate cut came four weeks ahead of the next scheduled meeting on Jan. 30-31 -- a rare intermeeting move not taken since the fall of 1998 when a global economic crisis threatened to seize up world financial markets. Thursday's discount rate cut was in line with the Fed's informal tradition of keeping the rate pegged at half a percentage point below the level of the fed funds rate. biz.yahoo.com