Careless appraisals of low quality, mortgage-backed securities by ratings agencies, combined with low interest rates and irresponsible lending created the subprime mess that is clogging up American and global financial markets.  In many parts of the country, home values have been plummeting or going sideways, while the ongoing credit crunch is making it difficult for even the best credit consumers to find fair deals on loans and credit cards. ... http://www.squidoo.com/primerate Mon, 12 May 2008 04:20:33 -0600 FeedCreator 1.7.2 Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:45:18 -0600 http://www.squidoo.com/primerate Careless appraisals of low quality, mortgage-backed securities by ratings agencies, combined with low interest rates and irresponsible lending created the subprime mess that is clogging up American and global financial markets.  In many parts of the country, home values have been plummeting or going sideways, while the ongoing credit crunch is making it difficult for even the best credit consumers to find fair deals on loans and credit cards.  Many seasoned economists are predicting a recession for 2008, which would make life even hard for a substantial percentage of middle-class Americans.  The Fed has been responding to signs of economic weakness and the credit crunch by lowering interest rates.  Since mid-September of 2007, the Federal Reserve has lowered the benchmark fed funds target rate by 325 basis points (3.25 percentage points.)  This has caused the U.S. Prime Rate to drop by 325 basis points as well. The fed funds target rate is America's most important short-term interest rate, and the Prime Rate moves up and down in tandem with it.  Many American consumers don't understand how the U.S. Prime Rate works, even though it's an index used for many types of consumer and business loans.  Knowledge of how the Prime Rate works can help consumers make better decisions about loans, credit cards and other credit products. NEWS: April 30, 2008: The Fed has just lowered the Fed Funds Target Rate by 25 basis points (0.25 percentage point) to 2.00%, so the U.S. Prime Rate is now 5.00% Get free updates: click this link to subscribe to the Prime Rate RSS feed. Copyright © 2008 Steve "AmCy" Brown, American CyberSpace® Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:45:18 -0600