In layman’s terms, cutting the interest rate is supposed to stimulate consumer spending. By lowering the rate, the Fed would be making it less expensive for consumers to borrow money, which would in turn make it easier for them to splurge on things that Americans like to splurge on, like small dogs that go yip and big cars that go vroom.

The government, Yellen said, should provide assistance to homeowners and the housing market, since the housing crisis was one of the main factors that tipped off the snowball’s merry descent into hell earlier this year.

Taking questions from the audience, Yellen also commented that she finds recent data on the economy to be “deeply worrisome”, and that a significant contraction of the economy is impending. That’s something we don’t need a Fed president to tell us, thank you very much.

Image Source: straightedge under Creative Commons
Yellen Says Fed May Cut Main Rate Close to Zero in Weak Economy [Bloomberg]

This past week, MacArthur genius grant recipients learned in a single phone call from the Foundation that they will each receive $500,000 in “no strings attached” support over the next five years.

Ostensibly this means they can slag off their academic duties and canoodle with loved ones in exotic vacationing spots across the world, but past MacArthur fellows have shown themselves more inclined to, oh, investigate lava. Build sculptures out of Scotch tape and paper clips. Research the aerodynamicism of fruit flies.  We dig.

This year’s batch includes 13 in the science fields and eight involved with the arts.  You can check out the breakdown here.

Image Source: leekelleher under Creative Commons
25 New MacArthur Fellows Announced [MacArthur Foundation]