A few things stand out about this particular rate change: first, the
magnitude of influence that just a quarter percentage - point change had on the stock market; second, the current rate with an upper
range of.50 % compared to the
various long - term averages of about 5 %; and third, the rate remains historically low, with only minute incremental changes, despite the relatively good news we continue to read about the economy.
Rather than use a single threshold for earthquake
magnitude, he ran several statistical analyses using different
magnitude thresholds, looking for patterns in quakes over
various intervals
ranging in length from months to years — and found nothing.