Investors are increasingly hopeful that will push Federal Reserve officials to come to their rescue with an emergency rate cut. But if something comes up in between those meetings that changes their views on the ideal level for rates, officials can gather for an unscheduled “emergency” meeting. By doing two large emergency cuts in succession, Fed officials didn’t have to weigh whether their actions would unnecessarily cause Americans to panic. Before those cuts, the last time the Fed was promoted to do an emergency rate cut was in the thick of the Great Recession shortly after Lehman Brothers collapsed in the fall of 2008. But he said he was “reluctantly” comfortable with an emergency cut since other central banks were doing it.

---

Persons: Austan Goolsbee, there’s, Lehman Brothers, ” Charles Plosser, “, ”, That’s, Janet Yellen, ” Yellen, Plosser Organizations: New, New York CNN, Federal, Chicago Fed, New York Times, Philadelphia Fed, Bank of Canada, European Central Bank, Bank of England, San, Committee, Fed, Treasury Locations: New York