To: yard_man who wrote (126837 ) 10/2/2001 1:19:35 PM From: patron_anejo_por_favor Read Replies (1) | Respond to Did this fool write this with a crayon, or an Etch-a-Sketch?<NG>cnnfn.cnn.com Why aren't the rate cuts working? Has the Fed lost its moxie? Or is the current economic decline unstoppable? But the current problems of U.S. banks are nowhere near that severe. In the late 1990s, they did lend too much to telecom firms and dotcoms -- and also to consumers with too many credit cards. The resulting bad loans will discourage banks from lending expansively for a while, but they certainly don't threaten the banking system. The situation in Japan is even less of a parallel. The Bank of Japan cut interest rates close to zero but failed to revive that economy. The problem was that Japan remained committed to propping up troubled companies and protecting jobs at almost any cost.
