Bank of England makes big interest rate cut, from 4.5 percent to 3 percent

There’s economic news on both sides of the Atlantic this morning. In the United States, weekly jobless claims in the United States dipped to 481,000 and long-term claims jump to highest level in 25 years. Meanwhile, the British central bank ? the Bank of England ? has cut its main interest rate by one and a half percent, the bank’s biggest cut since 1981, aiming to thwart a national recession.