Fed eyes new tools to lift economy

Deprived of its main weapon to revive economic activity, the Federal Reserve meets Tuesday to consider new tools to open up credit markets and tackle the worst crisis since the 1930s.
At a two-day policy meeting opening Tuesday, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is expected to leave unchanged its base lending rates at zero to 0.25 percent as it mulls further moves to tackle the credit crunch and economic slump.
With the traditional tool of interest rate policy now exhausted, the central bank is focused on extraordinary efforts to pump up credit to boost the economy.