Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

While many assumed the FED would probably cut rates today, it wasn't a for sure thing, so business leaders and the market gave a sigh of relief as the FED cut the benchmark rate by 50 basis points, causing the major indexes to surge. The rate was cut from 5.25 percent to 4.75 percent.

The move won't solve the problems facing the U.S. economy, but it will help to offset the damage.

For business this does more psychologically than anything else. It does show the FED will move and cover their backs when they need to.

Commenting on the cuts, the Fed said the purpose was to deal with "The tightening of credit conditions has the potential to intensify the housing correction and to restrain economic growth more generally," the policymaking Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement. "Today's action is intended to help forestall some of the adverse effects on the broader economy that might otherwise arise...."

In other words they're saying it was an exercise in containment.

Some are saying they're surprised by the size of the cut, thinking it would only drop by 25 basis points. Of course that has already engendered talk that there's more problems in the economy than orinally thought. Either way you would have heard this kind of talk, no matter what the FED did.

The one expected thing that's already happened was the dollar has already weakened from the move as it dropped to a record low against the Euro, on the first rate cut in four years.

This will not only be good psychologically for business, but for consumers also. Seeing the positive response should encourage them to loosen up their wallets again, as the endless bad news on the US economy has caused them to tighten up for a while.