Everybody needs money. That's why they call it money.

From full global headquarters, this is Motley Fool Money.

Welcome to the show. Thanks for being here. I'm your host Chris Hill, and I'm joined by Motley Fool,

Senior Analyst, Seth Jason, James Early, and Shannon Zimmer.

Guys, good to see you. Good to see you, Chris.

This coming up, best selling author Michael Lewis talks about his new book, The Big Short,

and tells us how a few people made big money off the financial crisis.

Plus, we'll give you an inside look at the stocks that are on our radar.

But we begin with the Fed's announcement earlier in the week that it would leave interest rates unchanged.

The Fed said the economic recovery may be slow, and the Fed funds rate,

the interest rate that banks charge each other, is likely to stay low for a while.

James Early, what's the takeaway for investors?

Well, Chris, to use a banking analogy, no Fed chairman wants to be accused of early withdrawal

when it comes to a stimulus, and Bernanke is certainly not among them.

But I think the real question is, where do we go from here?

Who are we now? Yes, the Fed funds rate itself is low.

But the Fed has pulled out of its $1.25 trillion mortgage-backed security purchase plan.

And for perspective, these are agency MBSs backed by Fannie and Freddie,

and 1.25 trillion is a quarter of the entire agency MBS market.

And to remind folks out there, that's important because by buying these things

and providing a big market for them, it helped keep rates low.

And it was essentially manipulation of the mortgage market to keep rates low to try and clear houses off the market.

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