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Some still worry about inflation. Others have warned about the "moral hazard" of rescuing investors who made risky bets. But members of the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee are expected to lower the target for the federal funds overnight rate when they meet tomorrow.

Many experts think such a move is overdue. But there are a few dissenters.

"A Fed Funds cut will not bring back the U.S. housing market," Scott Anderson, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Economics, tells Marketwatch. "A Fed Funds cut will not bring back the commercial paper market."

Bob MacIntosh, chief economist at the Boston-based mutual fund group Eaton Vance, tells the Christian Science Monitor that the anticipated rate cut will weaken the dollar -- already at historic lows to the euro -- and fuel the risk of inflation.

In a front page story today, the Wall Street Journal warns that slashing rates won't have the same impact as after the dot-com bust and the Sept. 11 attacks. Even if the Fed makes a series of rate cuts, "the economy and stock market are likely to be dealing with the fallout" from problems including the housing slump, losses in mortgage lending, and high gas prices, "well into next year."

Still, the question is not whether the Fed will cut rates but by how much and when. Not taking action now could send markets into a panic.

"It would be a strange time for the Federal Reserve to shock the markets," the Financial Times notes, saying news on economic growth, inflation and jobs gives the Fed some "cover" to justify a rate cut.

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