Street to Fed: Take Your Lousy Half-Point Cut and...

LOS ANGELES -- Once again, Alan Greenspan thumbed his nose at the financial markets and, once again, Wall Street responded with a hand gesture of its own.

The Federal Reserve lowered the key fed funds rate by 50 basis points today, its third such move this year. Yet the markets, particularly the stock market, were again left wanting more from the central bank. Expressing disappointment that the Fed didn't lower rates by 75 basis points (or more), investors chose to sell news of the "mere" half-point cut. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 each lost 2.4%, and the Nasdaq Composite shed 4.8%.

Here at the Milken Institute 2001 Global Conference at the quintessentially 1950's California-style Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel, the attitude about the Fed's move today was one of frustrated resignation. ...