Suitably Unimpressed

Some of the heavy hitters are underwhelmed. London Times (01.23.08):

"The US Federal Reserve was accused today of acting recklessly with its dramatic slashing of interest rates, with one senior delegate at the World EconomicForum in Davos saying it risked igniting a fresh bubble.

Amid cautious support for the Fed's action yesterday among business leaders gathered in the mountain resort, Stephen Roach, the head of Asia for the US investment bank Morgan Stanley, struck a more critical note, saying he was astonished that the Fed had let itself be goaded into action by a market panic."

Davos delegates react to Fed rate cut

"'We have a market-friendly Fed possibly injecting a lot of liquidity in the system which will set us up for another bubble economy. I’m sort of worried that all they did yesterday was to hit the snooze button,' he said."

From the "Wishful Thinking Department": "John Studzinski, the former HSBC banker now working for the private equity group Blackstone, called for better leadership from policymakers."