Today central banks in Europe and China announced new monetary stimulus measures to spur economic growth. How will the global stimulus measures impact the U.S. economy and unemployment?

The Federal Reserve will continue its Operation Twist program, but it can't do much else to help the global economic downturn caused by financial strain in Europe. On the plus side? We get lower gas prices.

Global markets, and many economists, seem unimpressed this morning with the news yesterday from the Federal Reserve that it will expand the Operation Twist monetary stimulus program.

The U.S. Federal Reserve says it will continue holding interest rates down the rest of the year through its "Operation Twist" — swapping short-term securities for long-term ones. But the economic crisis is global, and ours is not the only central bank that's worried about stoking economic growth.

The Fed will wrap up a meeting today in Washington, and the expectation is that policymakers will launch more monetary stimulus to boost the economy.

The Federal Reserve wraps up a meeting today in Washington. And the expectation is that policymakers will launch more monetary stimulus to boost the economy.

The Federal Reserve wraps up a meeting in Washington today, and markets around the world are waiting to see if the rumors are true and more monetary stimulus is on the way.

Chairman Ben Bernanke said the Fed would continue buying Treasury bills to drive long-term interest rates down, but would also wait before taking more action on the economy.

The U.S. Federal Reserve Open Market Committee finishes two days of meetings today. And we'll have an announcement shortly on what — if any — change in monetary policy they might have decided on.