Fed Looks Ready to Cut Rates Today -- Then What?

Updated from 2:59 p.m. EST, Jan. 30, 2001

The question now is not necessarily what happens today, but what happens next.

It's expected that the Federal Reserve will announce today that it has slashed the fed funds rate , the key short-term lending rate, to 5.5% from 6%, which would mean that the Federal Open Market Committee would have cut rates by a full percentage point in a month to stave off a recession.

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