Hoping to Prevent Recession - Fed Cuts Interest Rate Again

In a surprise inter-meeting decision, the Federal Reserve lowered its target for the federal funds rate in response to a weakening economy. In an emergency move, the Fed lowered its rate by 75 basis points to 3.50%. The rate-setting arm of the Federal Reserve, the Federal Open Market Committee, lowered the rate in an effort to prevent a recession due to ongoing problems and softening in the housing, credit, labor, and financial markets. The Open Market Committee's regular meeting is scheduled for January 29-30, at which time additional cuts may occur. The federal funds rate is an overnight bank lending interest rate that affects consumer interest rates on credit cards, home equity, and car loans. Read the press release from the Federal Reserve.

Check out "Fed slashes key rate to 3.5%" from CNNMoney.com, "Fed Cuts Key Interest Rate as Asian Markets Drop for Second Day" from the Washington Post, "Market down on recession woes but Fed cut helps" from Reuters, "Fed Slices Interest Rate by 0.75%" from FOX Business, and "Fed slashes rates in shock move" from BBC News.

Need more information on the Federal Reserve? Try FED101, an interactive website on the Federal Reserve's history, monetary policy (including interest rates), regulatory functions, and financial services.

Want more information on banking, banks and credit unions? Check out the library's guide.

From the Congressional Research Service

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a research agency of Congress and writes reports at Congress's request. These short reports (usually 10-40 pages long) cover recent topics of concern. This week brings us CRS reports on security, United Nations, judicial security, and more. While these reports are in the public domain there is no central database available to the public. To get a copy of a CRS report you can request it from your Senator or Representative. This list is compiled from CRS reports discovered by Secrecy News and OpenCRS:

• The Gulf Security Dialogue and Related Arms Sale Proposals
• Foreign Ownership of U.S. Financial Assets: Implications of a Withdrawal
• Laos: Background and U.S. Relations
• Pakistan-U.S. Relations
• The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW): Congressional Issues
• Judicial Salary: Current Issues and Options for Congress

Interested in historical CRS reports? If you are here at the Boulder campus, check out the LexisNexis Congressional database, which has reports back to 1916.

Not on campus, but still want access to additional reports? The library has a guide linking to various additional sources of CRS reports.

GAO Releases this week

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is often called the investigative arm of Congress. This week they investigated a variety of issues, such Iran sanctions, Iraq reconstruction, and energy markets. If you would like to know more about the GAO, check out the library's guide.

Reports

• Chemical Demilitarization: Additional Management Actions Needed to Meet Key Performance Goals of DOD's Chemical Demilitarization Program. GAO-08-134, December 6.
  http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-134
  Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d08134high.pdf
• End-of-Life Care: Key Components Provided by Programs in Four States [Arizona, Florida, Oregon, Wisconsin]. GAO-08-66, December 14.
  http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-66
  Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d0866high.pdf
• Energy Markets: Increasing Globalization of Petroleum Products Markets, Tightening Refining Demand and Supply Balance, and Other Trends Have Implications for U.S. Energy Supply, Prices, and Price Volatility. GAO-08-14, December 20.
  http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-14
  Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d0814high.pdf
• Entitlement Reform Process: Other Countries' Experiences Provide Useful Insights for the United States. GAO-08-372, January 18.
  http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-372
  Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d08372high.pdf
• Iran Sanctions: Impact in Furthering U.S. Objectives Is Unclear and Should Be Reviewed. GAO-08-58, December 18.
  http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-58
  Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d0858high.pdf
• Legal Services Corporation: Improved Internal Controls Needed in Grants Management and Oversight. GAO-08-37, December 28.
  http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-37
  Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d0837high.pdf

Correspondence

• Bureau of Reclamation: Reimbursement of California's Central Valley Project Capital Construction Costs by San Luis Unit Irrigation Water Districts. GAO-08-307R, December 18.
  http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-307R
• Defense Infrastructure: Realignment of Air Force Special Operations Command Units to Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico. GAO-08-244R, January 18.
  http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-244R
• Motor Carrier Safety: The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Has Developed a Reasonable Framework for Managing and Testing Its Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 Initiative. GAO-08-242R, December 20.
  http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-242R

Testimony

• Export Promotion: Export-Import Bank Has Met Target for Small Business Financing Share, by Loren Yager, director, international affairs and trade, before the House Committee on Small Business. GAO-08-419T, January 17.
  http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-419T
  Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d08419thigh.pdf

Inflation Rates for 2007

Driven by higher food and energy prices, the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers (CPI-U) was 4.1 percent higher for the 12-month period ending in December 2007 than for that same time period in December 2006, when the CPI-U rose 2.5 percent. Excluding food and energy, the CPI-U rose 2.4 percent for all of 2007. This is a slight deceleration from the 2006 rate of 2.6. Read the BLS news release for more information and to compare data by item and year. The Consumer Price Indexes (CPI) program from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) produces monthly data on changes in the prices paid by urban consumers for a representative basket of goods and services.

You might also want to check out the CPI Inflation Calculator to see how far your money goes today compared to yesteryear (1913-present).

Read "Inflation Rate Spikes in 2007" from the Washington Post.

Want more information? Check out the library's guides on Income & Poverty, Labor & Employment, and Labor Statistics.

No more pine trees in Colorado?

For those of you who read the Denver Post's "Beetle-kill rate in Colorado 'catastrophic,'" you might be interested in reading more about this growing problem. There are a number of sites to examine:

• Ariel Survey This is the page that you can use to link to Ariel photographs by quad of the tree cover back to 2003. If you want to see the map with data up to 2006, check out this page.
• Regional Park Beetle Information This is where I got those infestation pictures you see on the left. You can also get information on the plan to fight the infestation here.
• Mountain Pine Beetle This is the Colorado Forestry Service page on the infestation of the mountain pine beetle with a life cycle.

Want more forest and parks information? Check out the library's guide.