WASHINGTON (AP) -- Tighten your seat belt. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues are doing just that as they prepare to ride out economic and financial storms by holding their most important interest rate steady this week and probably through the rest of this year.Unemployment is rising, consumers are clamping down as paychecks shrink and the government snatched control of troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as it battles the worst financial and credit crises in decades.
The Fed is also working with the Treasury Department to help resolve Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s search for a financial lifeline. Fed officials have been having conversations with relevant parties and getting updates, but a resolution is not expected to involve the use of government money.
"There is a witch's brew of problems," said Allen Sinai, chief global economist at Decision Economics Inc.
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