And why not? Positives - Wall Street loves them and since the panic/crisis seems to be fueled by the plunge in the Dow, perhaps it is a good idea to lower rates in the effort to restore a sense of confidence. Negatives - this really does very little to help out the seized credit markets since the federal funds rate and the rates that are currently important (the LIBOR and the commercial paper markets) have become untethered to the fed funds rate. This is the essence of the crisis.
On balance then, I am skeptical, but since inflation pressures have eased tremendously, I suppose it is worth a try. It is very good to see some coordinated action with Europe. As I mentioned last time, this is the first true global crisis of international financial market and calls for global action.
Note: I had planned to be knee deep in ballot measure analysis at this point - hopefully I can get to that soon.
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