U.S. markets tanked this week even though the Federal Reserve offered a bigger dose of economic stimulus than investors had expected: The Fed plans to reshuffle $400 billion of its investments in hopes of pushing down interest rates on mortgages and other long-term loans. Lower rates are supposed to coax consumers and businesses into borrowing and spending. The Fed also plans to invest proceeds from maturing U.S. Treasury debt into mortgage bonds in an effort to support the housing market. But economists say the Fed's effort -- dubbed Operation Twist after a similar Fed program conducted during the Chubby Checker dance craze of the early 1960s -- probably won't make much difference.
Rates on mortgages and other loans are already the lowest in decades. Frightened Americans would rather cut their debts than borrow, and businesses aren't seeing enough sales to justify hiring and expanding despite rock-bottom borrowing costs. The Fed's announcement underscored the fear that the American central bank had run out of tools to stimulate the economy. That leaves fiscal policy -- government spending programs and tax cuts -- as the only other way to juice growth. But political bickering is preventing Washington from doing much of anything. Congressional Republicans are focused on cutting government deficits, not widening them in the name of helping the economy. They are resisting President Barack Obama's $447 billion plan to generate jobs with payroll-tax cuts and more spending for roads, bridges, schools and other infrastructure projects. Economist Eswar Prasad of Cornell University says the U.S. government should tolerate higher deficits now to spur economic growth -- as long as it delivers a credible plan to bring its budget under control in the future.
