Overview: The Federal Reserve and the Treasury this afternoon announced new measures to secure the flow of credit to the economy to prevent a deepening of the slowdown. Specifically, the measures are targeted to support the mortgage market and the market for securities backed by credit card, auto, student and small business loans, and should help to bring funding costs lower. With today's announcement the Federal Reserve has now moved to full scale quantitative easing. The central bank will now be expanding its balance sheet further, printing money to buy longer term debt in the market.