MoneyCafe.com

The Fed held steady today on the Fed Funds Rate keeping it in a range between 0% and .25%.  The Prime Rate should remain unchanged at 3.25%.

The Federal Reserve (FOMC) will announce its decision regarding rates later today.  We expect the FOMC to hold steady on the Fed Funds Rate.  Because of this, we expect no changes to the Prime Rate.

The Federal Reserve FOMC announced their rate and policy statement today.  They kept the current Fed Funds Rate at 0% to .25%, which keeps the Prime Rate at 3.25%.

See:
http://www.moneycafe.com/library/fedfundsrate.htm
http://www.moneycafe.com/library/primerate.htm

The Federal Reserve FOMC will announce their rate and policy statement later today.  They are expected to keep the current Fed Funds Rate at 0% to .25%, which would keep the Prime Rate at 3.25%.

See:
http://www.moneycafe.com/library/fedfundsrate.htm
http://www.moneycafe.com/library/primerate.htm

The Federal Reserve is finishing up a two day policy meeting today and will make an announcement at 2:15 pm Eastern.  At the last meeting they decided to lower the Federal Funds Target Rate to a target range of 0.00% to 0.25%.   They also indicated rates would be held low for a while.  That action resulted in the Prime Rate going down to 3.25%.

It’s not clear what to expect today.  They certainly will want to do something to positively impact consumers and business.  But having previously lowered the rate to near zero percent, their options seem limited.  We’ll keep an eye on their decision and report back later regarding the effects this meeting will have on interest rates.

We have just added a couple of new graphs to put the current interest rate situation in historical perspective. 

A graph of the Prime Rate from 1930 through 2008 can be found at http://www.moneycafe.com/library/primeratehistory.htm. 

A graph of the Fed Funds Rate from 1955 through 2008 can be found at http://www.moneycafe.com/library/fedfundsratehistory.htm.