Bernanke's speech suggests that he believes the financial turmoil has tipped the scale towards the threat of a serious slowdown. "The Fed chairman has more or less promised a further cut in the funds rate in his speech this afternoon," said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics.
The stock market didn't seem to like the fact that Bernanke only prepared the market for a rate cut without formally delivering one. After his address at the National Association of Business Economists, the Dow Jones Industrial Average steepened its decline and closed down fell by more than 500 points.
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