Bernanke preferred risk of doing too much on rates: report

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in this July 18, 2007 file photo. The Fed cut the key interest rate 1/2 point on September 18, 2007, to 4.75 per cent.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve's move to slash interest rates by a half-percentage point signals that Chairman Ben Bernanke, fearing broad damage from recent market turmoil, preferred to risk doing too much rather than too little, the Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition.

With Tuesday's move, Bernanke may have shown himself closer in style and tactics to predecessor Alan Greenspan than some market watchers had suspected, according to the report by the Journal's Greg Ip.

The report said that Bernanke has shown that giving the impression he might be bailing out investors matters less than keeping the economy out of recession.

(Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf; editing Cheryl Juckes)