As expected, U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers slashed a benchmark interest rate yesterday (Tuesday). But they cut it by a bigger-than-expected amount, and did so in an unconventional manner.

Instead of establishing a new, specific primary interest rate, the central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted for a target range – 0.0% to 0.25% – a record low. Before yesterday’s cut, the Federal Funds target rate stood at 1.0%.

Instead of addressing the reason for its peculiar target range, the Federal Reserve opted for canned doomsday language that could have appeared verbatim in any of its previous rate cut announcements: It hasn’t been good. It doesn’t look good. And we’re trying to fix it.

Most cryptically, the FOMC said it “will employ all available tools” to promote economic growth and price stability. But those objectives could take some time to achieve.

“The committee anticipates that weak economic conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low

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President-elect Barack Obama yesterday (Monday) formally unveiled his economic team, including the nomination of New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy F. Geithner as the new administration’s U.S. Treasury secretary. The team’s first challenge will be assembling an economic stimulus package that could be even larger than the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) the Bush Administration has deployed.

The nomination of Geithner to succeed current U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. was leaked over the weekend, and was reported by Money Morning yesterday.

Geithner (pronounced: GITE-ner) obtained a Master of Arts degree in International Economics and East Asian Studies from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in 1985. He also has studied Japanese and Chinese and has lived in present-day Zimbabwe, India, Thailand and China.

As

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The US is probably going to join the rest of the industrialized world in recession and all the bad news probably isn’t priced in yet. However, it would not be surprising to see a rally soon.We’re approaching Thanksgiving. In 13 of the last 15 years the Dow has been up the week before Thanksgiving. Combined with the light volume around the Thanksgiving holiday – there’s an old saying on the Street, “never short a dull market” – we could see a powerful move to the upside before the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq finally hold hands and jump off the next cliff.And then there are commodities. Crude oil fell to the lowest closing price since January 2007 as Japan entered a recession for the first time since 2001. Meanwhile, China National Petroleum, that country’s largest petroleum producer, said demand has dropped “sharply.''The ...