Maybe a little like subprime leading up to 2008. The problem was written off by just about everyone who bothered to look, until something snapped and it was the only thing that mattered.
We may be seeing the start of this in the repo market, which once again had a convulsion today. I doubt many care about it or really understand it, and that goes double for policy makers.
- Signaling that the Fed is willing to get involved to stabilize market prices (by making capital cheaper) is meant to calm markets and give participants comfort about making decisions today that they could optionally wait to decide. If everyone goes into a holding pattern, liquidity is impacted, which can cause all sorts of unpredictable price movement.
- it is a wealth transfer from one group to another. The beneficiaries are existing debtors (mostly firms) and firms who benefit most from cheaper capital.
- it gives the Fed slightly more influence over the outcome of the 2020 election, since reversal of the Covid-19 rate decrease can be timed to create desirable optics as the election approaches. Much research has been done about the most critical time period prior to the election when "it's the economy, stupid" is most true.