Portland Mortgage Broker

So it occurred to me in the early hours of this morning while I was wishing for sleep that the problems we face are not monetary, but psychological. No matter how cheap the Fed makes money, we face a systemic lack of confidence and unavailability of credit within the U.S. markets. As I was idly searching around the Internet for related stories, I came across one on CNBC where the CEO of Merrill Lynch was interviewed by the Spanish newspaper El Pais. In it, he essentially echoes this sentiment. Of course, this comes from one of the world’s largest investment firms after it has just announced a $9.83 billion loss in the fourth quarter of 2007 - the largest ever in its 94-year history. Of course he’s going to be a little gun-shy after asking the markets to soak up that much blood. The Fed announced an emergency .25% rate cut over the weekend and is expected to cut another .50 basis points at its regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, but the greatest impact the FOMB will have in saving us from ourselves is the “outside-the-box” thinking that sponsors such activities as the Bear Stearns bailout and creation of new lending facilities where the Fed actually purchases asset-backed securities.