Marketplace®

Daily business news and economic stories
Episode 152Mar 3, 2020

What did the Fed just do?

To try and contain the economic fallout of COVID-19, the Federal Reserve just cut rates by a half point. Today, what that means and why it matters.

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Today on the show: What the Fed just did and why.
Today on the show: What the Fed just did and why.
Eric Baradat/AFP via Getty Images

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As if you needed more evidence that the COVID-19 outbreak has ripple effects through the economy, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a half point this morning.

Adjusting the federal funds rate between meetings is a highly unusual move, one we haven’t seen since Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008. Stocks and bonds both surged on the news before sliding back into their drop from the past week. President Donald Trump tweeted that the cut was not enough.

So we’re going to take some time today to talk though what that cut means, what the Fed is saying about coronavirus, the market reaction and whether or not we should even care about stocks when there’s a pandemic brewing.

Plus, we’ll hear some of your reaction to our housing episode and look into the rules around price gouging. Consult this map before you drop hundreds of dollars on some Purell.

 
Blue states have laws against price gouging; gold states do not.
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The Team