The Fed still has room to lower the Federal Funds Rate if it wanted to, right now Japan has a rate lower than ours and the Euro is about at par with ours. Also the Fed does not 'print' money, the Treasury does that, see below. All that being said, the amount of power the Fed has should be incredibly scary to all of us. Most people don't have a clue that the Federal Reserve is a private company (NOT A GOVERNMENT AGENCY) and our government has few checks and balances when it comes to the Fed. People get so crazy about presidential and congressional elections, but don't realize how much direct power the Fed has over our economy. I hope everyone is paying attention when/if Janet Yellen gets sworn in in January. http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/no-fed-does-not-print-money-just-explain-150433185.html
The fed doesn't print money but they control the interest rate and how much currency is to be printed. The treasury is like Kinkos for the Federal reserve.
Everyone should know that the fed is buying $85 Billion (yes that's right, Billion) in treasury bonds EVERY MONTH as part of QE. That's all of our tax dollars being spent every month to prop up this economy. That's how bad things were and remain to this date. From the article below.... ***********000000]"Technically, the Fed sets a 'target' fed funds rate,(this is the rate you hear on the news when they are talking about interest rates) and currently it's between 0% and 0.25%, where it's been since December 2008.[/COLOR] Another way the Fed controls the money supply — which is different than the actual amount of dollars in circulation — is via its "open market operations", through which it buys and sells bonds in the open market. If you've read news stories about the Fed buying Treasuries to help boost the economy, that's an example of 'open market operations' in action and is an example of "quantitative easing" or QE, which is not to be confused with a ship. When it buys bonds, the money supply increases because the banks exchange their bonds for cash and then have more money -- aka liquidity -- to lend to businesses or individuals. The opposite occurs when the Fed sells bonds to the banks, who typically can't refuse any offer from the Fed. In addition, the Fed controls the money supply by raising or lowering "reserve requirements," which is the amount of money banks are required to keep "on reserve" at the Fed, sort of like a rainy-day fund for the banking system. Raise those requirements and banks have less money for other stuff -- like lending; the opposite is true when the Fed lowers reserve requirements...or keeps them low as has been its recent practice."
ASTONISHING!! The shit that is happening before our eyes(and behind the backs) is simply amazing. Thats what happens when you have a corporate owned media and politicians.
