With the Fed widely expected to cut rates during their next meeting on September 18th, today's chart provides some long-term perspective in regards to the fed funds rate. As today's chart illustrates, the fed funds rate remains within the confines of a long-term downtrend. Another point of interest is that while investors expect that the target fed funds rate will be cut from 5.25% to 5.0%, the effective fed funds rate is already there. In fact, the effective fed funds rate has been significantly below the current target of 5.25% for the majority of the past month.
