Professor of Economics Philip Jefferson, a former research economist at the Federal Reserve Board,  said on PBS' "NewsHour" that he was surprised by the size of the Fed's recent cut in interest rates.  "I thought it would have been important," he said, "to signal to the financial markets that, if you find yourself in a difficult situation because of lenient banking and lending practices, the Fed was not necessarily going to come in and clean up the mess afterwards." Watch the entire discussion here.