[Dantheman62]

Yup......Never in the postwar history has the Fed acted as lender of last resort to this degree," Mayland said.

In fact, with all the lending by the Fed, the actual funds rate has fallen at times well below its current 1 percent target.

As housing, credit and financial problems persist, the economic rubble mounts higher.

Shell-shocked employers axed 533,000 jobs in November alone. That drove the unemployment rate up to 6.7 percent, a 15-year high.

Since the start of the recession, the economy has shed nearly 2 million jobs. Analysts predict another 3 million more will be lost between now and the spring of 2010.

Last week alone, Bank of America Corp., tool maker Stanley Works and Sara Lee Corp., known for food brands such as Jimmy Dean and Hillshire Farm, announced job cuts.
With the employment market eroding and consumers retrenching, the economy could stagger backward at a shocking 6 percent rate in the current October-December quarter, analysts predict. It shrank at a 0.5 percent pace in the third quarter