we look at all this with david wessel, "wall street journal" economics editor and author of "in fed we trust, ben bernanke's war on the great panic." and david i'll start with you, first help us understand exactly what the fed is doing today and how it's supposed to stimulate growth in the economy. >> what the fed is doing today is announcing a program of printing $600 billion worth of money, that's what a central bank does, and whying that money to buy long-term treasury bonds in the market. this will push up their price and push down the interest rate on those bonds, and they hope that will spread to other debt in the economy, mortgage rates and corporate borrowing, and that should make it easier for some people to borrow, make them more willing to borrow and make them spend a little more money. they also hope this will raise the price of stocks because they figure people will not want to buy bonds any more because the yields are so low, that will make people feel and actually be richer, maybe they'll spend a little more. finally, although they don't admit it, they know this will ten