quote:

Originally posted by MKpacha My dad retired the day after the plummet.

Yeah, my BF's mum had her retirement dinner last week.

Federal Reserve, Bank of Canada, ECB, Bank of England and other banks have all dropped their lending rates!!

We dropped our rate to 2.5% from 3%!

Don't know if this will have much effect.

And what about TD? They just raised their borrowing rates up 50BP yesterday...they better be lowering those rates back down!

there is a good article in the globe today about how the fed's cuts, bailouts and everything else are "firing blanks" - with asian markets down so much this morning, russia halted trading - I'm not convinced this is going to do much. The coordination of the rate cut may reinforce how bad things are! Dow futures are up this morning - but just look at yesterday when the market posted several % pts gain on open and then closed significantly in the red. It's crazy.

whoohoo!!!

those of us with variable rate mortgages will take the 50bps drop

quote:

Originally posted by MarkT whoohoo!!! those of us with variable rate mortgages will take the 50bps drop

For real. Pretty soon I will be paying 0 interest on the ole mortgage. Time to get that capital down before refinancing at the end of term. Mark, are variable rate mortgages still offered below prime?

quote:

Originally posted by exstasie Federal Reserve, Bank of Canada, ECB, Bank of England and other banks have all dropped their lending rates!! We dropped our rate to 2.5% from 3%! Don't know if this will have much effect.

It only works if they in fact have money to lend out. Hell they could lower the rate to 1%, but if the banks have nothing in their vaults, then what good is it?

quote:

Originally posted by Orko It only works if they in fact have money to lend out. Hell they could lower the rate to 1%, but if the banks have nothing in their vaults, then what good is it?

The good is that anyone who pays interest on anything now has more cash to pump into the economy.

Good point, but does it not make saving that much less enticing? And part of the whole credit crunch is that people were not saving enough?

quote:

Originally posted by MarkT whoohoo!!! those of us with variable rate mortgages will take the 50bps drop

or lines of credit

quote:

Originally posted by Orko Good point, but does it not make saving that much less enticing? And part of the whole credit crunch is that people were not saving enough?

Some of the cash will end up back in the economy no matter what. Might not make sense, but it does....because Americans like to consume, and they will be told that doing so will help the situation.

quote:

Originally posted by StereoPrincess or lines of credit

indeed...although the bank can reset their rates on revolving credit products.

TD-CT just jacked the rate on their secured lines of credit from Prime to Prime + 1% (Prime is standard in the industry).

Further, despite the Bank of Canada's 50bps (0.5%) drop on its target overnight rate, TD only dropped its Prime rate by 25bps (from 4.75% to 4.50%).

This clealry reflects the higher cost of borrowing money faced by the banks these days. It will be intersting to see if the other big banks follow suit, with a more moderate cut to their Prime rates, or if they pass along the full cut (as is normally the case).

edit: CIBC and RBC followed TD's lead. despite the 50bps drop by Bank of Canada, their Prime will only fall 25bps to 4.50%.

Last edited by MarkT on Oct-08-2008 at 20:28

quote:

Originally posted by Skipper The good is that anyone who pays interest on anything now has more cash to pump into the economy.

Good luck believing that it will solve any problems...