The Federal Reserve has made its second emergency rate cut in a little over a week, cutting the Fed Funds rate by a full 1% to a range of zero to 0.25%, in order to address the unprecedented economic slowdown caused by Coronavirus.

On March 3, 2020, the Federal Reserve made an emergency cut to the Federal Funds rate by 50 basis points to a rate of 1.00% to 1.25%. Our advice at that time was to buy 1-year CDs and this advice was reiterated a week ago when 1-year CD rates were at or just over 2%.

I get multiple inquiries every day from readers inquiring about long-term CD rates. Even though BestCashCow is the most comprehensive source of these rates, neither I nor anyone who works here would recommend the panicked move of locking into a 5-year CD here. At this point, it is the unanimous belief of even the most conservative medical professionals that Coronavirus will not be with us for more than another 18 months. We are likely to see inflation after it passes. Against that backdrop, a five-year CD seems like too far of a reach here. Plus, for comparison purposes, 5-year CDs were at 2.30% to 2.50% the last time that the Fed Funds rate was at zero, and you are not being rewarded with rates that high right now.

In fact, you are not getting any premium in 5-year CDs over 1-year CDs at the moment.

Since savings and money market rates are likely fall over the coming week to 10 days in response to today's cut, we’d continue to strongly recommend locking into 1-year products. It is just about securing the growth, however small, of your money for the next year.

The best online savings and money market rates are here.

The best online 1-year CD rates are here. You should also consider 1-year rates at local banks here, and 1-year rates at credit unions here.

If you think you may need to access your principal over the next 12 months, you should opt for No Penalty CDs. These products will not offer the same yields as one-year CDs, but they may still enable you to lock in a rate of return until we get to the other side of this challenging time.

Anyone who lived through 9-11 and the financial collapse in 2008 and 2009 remembers how extraordinarily painful were those periods for the airline industry and their employees. And, even the industry’s staunchest critics (hard core environmentalists, etc.) certainly recognize that a return to those difficult times is not in anyone’s interest. Yet, as a country, we are going to get through the Coronavirus and we are going to get through Trump, but somehow it is starting to seem that the three major airlines might not all get through 2020.

Without flying yourself, you can take steps to help the airlines out, and the easiest step is to accumulate frequent flier miles on those airlines that you will be inclined to fly in the future. This is a form of extending credit to the airlines, and it is a form of credit that has proven time and time again to survive bankruptcy.

If American Airlines is an airline that you fly, the easiest step you can take is to open a Bask Bank savings account. I’ve written about Bask Bank here. I believed in January that the prospect of getting AAdvantage® miles was very attractive in the low rate environment in January. I’ve noticed that many readers were engaging in a valuation exercise, valuing the miles they would receive against alternatives in the savings and CD market as if they were purchasing the miles (see the comments in this article). If that is your approach, the Fed’s most recent move makes the opportunity even more interesting.

Learn More About Bask Bank here.

If United is an airline that you fly, the easiest step you can take is to move your Chase Ultimate Rewards points to your United Mileage Plus account. Every time you convert your points, Chase is making a purchase of the miles from United.

And, if Delta is an airline that you fly, you can move your American Express Membership Rewards points to Delta Skymiles. Again, this action prompts a purchase of miles and a payment to Delta.

If you are not altruistic, you can even consider all of this to be completely in your self-interest. If history is any guide, when everything settles and people begin traveling again, you will find fantastic redemption values for your airline miles at all three of these airlines, especially for business class seats on long haul and international flights.

The Federal Reserve has made a 50 basis point emergency cut in response to the spread of Coronavirus, moving the Fed Fund rate to a target of 1.00 to 1.25%. The market is pricing in the likelihood of further cuts on that March and April meetings.

Under any circumstances, we expect savings rates to move down to the new level within the coming days, and perhaps even lower over the coming months.

We recommended moving cash to No penalty CDs last week.

If you have cash that you don’t need to access right away, it would now seem like a very good time to be looking at CDs.

It is hard to recommend looking at anything longer than 1-year CDs at the moment. Best one-year CD rates are here.

However, if you believe that Coronavirus presents a long term risk to the economy and do not anticipate needing access to your cash in the near or intermediate term, you may want to look at longer term rates. Best two-year CD rates are here.