Tom Raum
The nation’s leaders are running out of answers to America’s economic crisis. The Federal Reserve has no more practical room to push interest rates lower; there’s only so much taxpayer money for shoring up housing, and if depositors lose confidence there’s little officials can do to stop a run on banks. After years of seeming tame, inflation is again on the rise, led by higher food and fuel costs. But the Fed, which usually fights inflation by boosting interest rates, finds itself unable to use that weapon any more – it already has pushed rates down to 2 percent from 5.25 percent in response to the housing crisis – without threatening to undermine an economy that is either in recession or growing anemically. More
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