MONEY: An Easing by the Fed

For months, as soaring interest rates drove the cost of borrowing to record peaks, businessmen, labor leaders and economists voiced one plaint: excessively tight credit threatened to push the nation into deep and long recession. For some industries and for millions of individuals the recession has already struck. The dream of buying the single-family house has evaporated along with the drying up of mortgage money; housing starts in August fell 45% from the year-earlier rate.

Now at long last, there are hopeful signs that the Federal Reserve Board is making more money available for credit. Fed Chairman Arthur Burns last...