PITTSBURGH -- Congressman Tim Murphy and other local leaders weighed in on how the stagnant credit market is impacting local credit companies which employ more than 400 employees.

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“Unless we take care of the underlying issues -- the cost of manufacturing, the cost of energy – then we are not taking care of our jobs in America and our income in America,” said Murphy.

Senator Bob Casey said, “We have to consider strongly about whether or not we need an economic stimulus bill to jump-start the economy.”

“We need to continue to have stronger oversight on the markets,” said Congressman Jason Altmire. “To especially make sure that the people on Wall Street don’t get the crazy bonuses as they are on their way out the door.”

Investors may be in for quite a ride again on Wall Street, where the Dow fell about 200 points in the opening minutes of trading Wednesday before reversing course and moving into positive territory.

The Federal Reserve ordered the emergency interest rate cut of half a percentage point in an effort to steady the worst financial crisis since the 1929 stock market crash.

The rate cut by the Federal Reserve and other central banks may not have calmed investors worried about stagnant credit markets.

The Fed announced its decision Wednesday morning, just days after President George W. Bush signed a $700 billion bailout into law, and said that it acted in concert with central banks overseas, including the Bank of England.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues ratcheted down their key rate by 0.5 percent, to 1.5 percent. The action revives the central bank's rate-cutting campaign that had been halted in June out of concerns that those low rates would worsen inflation.

Since then, however, economic and financial conditions have dangerously deteriorated, forcing the Fed to reverse course.

The fact that the Fed felt it could not wait until its regularly scheduled meeting late this month underscored the urgency of the situation.

It was the latest in a long series of actions the Fed has taken in coordination with other federal agencies, Congress and the White House to try to shore up a financial industry that has been rocked by bad debt, losses and failures.