Mortgage Rates Fall as U.S. Expands Rescue. Government Vows $800 Billion for Credit Markets in Fresh Salvo on Recession; Could Aid Students, Car Buyers, Small Businesses.

The mortgage program is more straightforward. Beginning next week, the Fed will start buying $100 billion of debt issued by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the other government-sponsored enterprises. It also plans to buy up to $500 billion of mortgage-backed securities that these firms guarantee. Private asset managers will be hired to manage this portfolio of investments.  By purchasing securities tied to mortgage debt, the Fed hopes to push up the price of the debt, thereby lowering yields. This maneuver, theoretically, should push down mortgage rates.  Its approach is similar to steps taken in Japan in the 1990s and earlier this decade, when the Bank of Japan pumped reserves into Japanese banks. The Fed is taking that process a step further. Not only is it pumping in reserves, it is deciding where that cash should go, through its own lending programs.  There are many risks to this approach. Markets could become dependent on Fed financing, possibly slowing their own recovery. Fed officials are concerned about how they will exit from lending programs, but see that as a problem they'll have to confront when the crisis subsides, something that is still seen as far off.