Jumbo CD Investments - CD Rates Blog

Fed Funds Dropped 75 Basis Points

Today, 3/18/08, The FOMC cut the overnight rate by 0.75% to bring the rate to 2.25%.

Compare CD Rates

I updated our Compare CD Rates page.? This is useful for folks who are looking for free rate information and /or don’t meet our $50,000 minimum.?

Given the looming rate cut, I’m sure I will have some updates tomorrow as well.? We don’t work directly with the instutitions listed, but they should all be available nationwide.? Please leave a comment if you run into any problems.? I don’t want to link to an institution that provides poor service.

If you want to view the rates we have available go to our Certificate of Deposit Rates page.

Meltdowns-R-Us

And I’m not talking about Tuna Melts.? We started the day with JP Morgan snatching Bear Stearns for about 10% of their previous value.? They purchased them for a little over $2 a share.? In addition, the Fed is loaning $30 Billion of the American tax payer’s money to help shore up them up.? Isn’t that nice?!?

The Fed meets tomorrow and the number being thrown around is a .75% drop in the Fed Funds as the most likely scenario.? Some have even suggested 1.00%.? These decreases though have done nothing to help solve the credit crisis.

The news just gets worse and worse each day and I think fear will probably cause the demise of other institutions.? It won’t take too many big institutional investors to close their positions to bring other large firms down.

The Fed needs to get out of the saviour role and let the losses be had.? Let our dollar’s strength return.? Each drop in the dollar has corresponded to higher gas prices.? A double-whammy for people that live on fixed income.? The higher gas prices then bring everything else higher.

Here are some other links for your reading enjoyment.

• Don’t Blame Mark-to-Market for Banks’ Problems
• WesCorp Commentary

A Recommendation, A Ramble, and A Rant

First a recommendation.? A young man (Bruce Dickson) who I personnally know tried out for American Idol and on national TV explained his committment to purity.? He didn’t make the show, but has since received notice from shows like Hannity&Colmes in California and Fox News in Austin, TX.? He wrote a song which is available for download for 99 Cents.? I encourage you to check it out and support his efforts.? I’m not making any money from this endorsement, just trying to help him out.? We actually sang together in the church we use to attend, when he was about 9-years old.? Bruce Dickson Fans

The Fed is poised to lower rates again, next week.? Most believe they will cut 50 Basis Points, but I’ve heard the big 75 being thrown around.? The economy may be in worse shape than stastics are telling.? The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) uses magic fairy dust to help with their reports on added or subtracted jobs.? One aspect they use as an outdated birth/death adjustment.? This added 134,000 jobs last month.? If it weren’t for that adjustment, the job market would have shown a -200,000 jobs instead of the -63,000.? Do you get the feeling we are being fleeced?? I do, but what can we do?!?

And now for my rants.? I received some emails asking for information on banks that accept immigrants that may or may not be documented.? I don’t have a problem with documented and legal immigrants.? After all, that is what our country was built on.? I have a problem with illegal immigrants who think we owe them welfare, healthcare, education, etc.? And?I realize it is easy for me to say?since I was born here.? But my great, great, great grand-parents were not.? They came to this country to be Americans.? They learned the language, our laws, our ways.? They taught their children to honor this great country.? If that is what people coming here are?endeavoring to do, I say come on in.? If not, I say keep them out.? Here are some words from the past:

In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or orgin.? But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American and nothing but an American…There can be no divided allegience here.? Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all.? We have room for but one flag, the American flag…We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language…and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people. — Theodore Roosevelt, 1907

EmigrantDirect Savings Rate - Updated Mar 2008

Updated: 3/21/08.? EmigrantDirect’s saving rates has become steadily less attractive.? Which is a shame, because it is so easy to use. Currently at 2.75% APY.
This savings account works really well. You link the account to another bank account, such as where you do your primary banking, and you can transfer funds between the two accounts on-line.
The FDIC# for Emigrant Bank is 12054. They are over $11.5 Billion in assets.

Here is their website, EmigrantDirect

cd :O)