WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell expressed optimism Sunday that the U.S. economy can begin to recover from a devastating recession in the second half of the year, assuming the coronavirus doesn’t erupt in a second wave. But he suggested that a full recovery won’t likely be possible before the arrival of a vaccine.
Astute observations sir. Now, can I offer you a used bridge in Brooklyn?
With all due respect, Powell appears to not be listening to the medical experts who say a second wave is highly likely.
Does he have an economic forecast that includes a second wave and no vaccine before 2022?
Amongst the things we have which have no cure are:
a) Corona virus
b) Summertime Blues
c) That babbling orange thing residing in the WH
Yo, Jerome, how about I sidle on up to that window the banks use and get one of those sweet sub-1% interest loans.
I promise I’ll make it rain.
Powell is delusional if he believes this.
Pre-COVID-19, the stock market was artificially pumped up by stock buybacks and ridiculously low interest rates. Just as COVID-19 hit, Saudi Arabia and Russia started flooding the market with oil. These are two big problems that he is ignoring.
The oil industry got through the 2008-09 mess before many areas because of exploration and its many associated industries (pipes, machinery, etc) plus continued demand (I.e. driving). Not gonna happen this time - it will take months for demand to increase and draw down all the oil accumulating in storage.
ETA between the virus and damage to retirement accounts, I won’t be out spending. No trips and I’ll be driving my old car until it has to be replaced. Don’t need new clothes if I don’t find a job.
Not one that Trump will let him make public.
They really are going to go down the road of a total fabrication of events and facts. So what we are going to be treated to is a summer of projection after projection of what they want to happen. As nefarious as that seems, it also means we get to watch them get beaten into the ground by reality on a frequent basis.
Keep Dancing Trump, the virus is not going to care.
The happy talk is really thick with Powell. He can pontificate and project flowers coming up in full bloom throughout the last half of 2020. But what I, an admitted non-economist, see doesn’t suggest that magnificent and rapid recovery. No professional sports; cancellations of virtually all public celebrations, concerts, marathons, festivals, art fairs, county fairs at least through August; an iffy public school calendar; the largest economies of California and New York emerging slowly; flat or even collapsed travel, hospitality and tourism throughout the country, including international travelers coming to the US; a very slow return of business travel and virtually no conferences or conventions through 2020; high rate of small business bankruptcies; interminable lines at food banks, also signaling problematic mortgages, rents and auto debt; possible big business bankruptcies (airlines or department stores?); and people just like me who could afford to wander about and return to normal consumer spending levels but just won’t because we’re all on our own now and I can’t feel that we’re really safe. I’m not a pessimist and have confidence that we’ll have treatments or vaccines in the foreseeable future. I just have no confidence in the period before and immediate after the 2020 election. I am not totally risk averse and will spend money but my first travel will likely be to Europe later this summer where I’ll actually be safer.
Speaking of projection:
President Donald Trump on Sunday dismissed his predecessor as “grossly incompetent,” a day after former President Barack Obama said leaders weren’t “even pretending to be in charge” amid the coronavirus pandemic. Asked about Obama’s comments, Trump first told a pool of reporters at the White House that administration officials “had a great weekend” during a working trip to Camp David. “We did a lot of terrific meetings, tremendous progress is being made on many fronts, including coming up with a cure for this horrible plague that has beset our country,” he said. When pressed further, Trump added: “Look, he was an incompetent president. That’s all I can say. Grossly incompetent.”
‘Grossly incompetent’: Trump dismisses Obama over coronavirus criticism
The above is an example of projection, for we all know who the grossly incompetent buffoon really is, and it’s not #44. It’s the Orange Shit-Gibbon, #45. #44 brought us the Affordable Care Act and provided healthcare to millions. Trumplethinskin is working very hard to destroy healthcare during a pandemic, and has actually promoted COVID-19 through his malfeasance, maladministration and failure to act. Since he fired all those public health experts from the NSC, DHS and HHS and closed close to 80% of our off-shore public health first responders…the same folks who crushed ebola and zika viruses and identified around 160 pathogens that could lead to pandemics…#45 has blood all over his hands. He ignored many, many warnings from the intelligence community about this virus, and instead played golf, held campaign rallies and told us all that the virus was a hoax that would disappear. He didn’t do his damn job. Trump is effectively an executioner.
The federal government will not be able to take effective steps against either this recession or the ongoing pandemic until it changes hands and is systematically rebuilt from its current utterly corrupt and dysfunctional status. That can’t begin until late January 2021 in the most optimistic scenario. We’ll need a latter-day version of the Marshall Plan to do it. So anybody who wants to preserve a modicum of self-respect should probably ease up on the happy talk for a while.
we can get back to a healthy economy fairly quickly
Even IF this is true, one needs to understand that to Powell a healthy economy is one in which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The entire GOP is responsible for the fact that roughly 75 cents of every dollar of relief goes to Corporations and the 1%
.
"The Fed chairman said he and other central bank officials, in conversations with businesses, labor leaders, universities and hospitals, have picked up on “a growing sense that the recovery may take some time to gain momentum.”
My guess is this is why we need businessmen like Current Occupant who are smarter than the rest of us running things.
Sounds like his comments were designed to manage Trump-an hour by hour ordeal, much like juggling nitroglycerine. Synonyms for manage include defer, massage, soothe, beseech, wheedle, cajole, service. So much of Powell’s attention must be diverted to neutralizing Trump- a dispiriting and ultimately futile endeavor. Powell and Fauci should form a support group.
Yeah, that’ll work. As long as the waves are confined to ball parks and football stadiums.
If Democrats can’t take the Senate, President Biden’s hands will be tied. Little will change.
The critical contests are in AZ, CO, ME, KY, NC, GA, SC and possibly MT, TX and KS (assuming Kobach wins the nomination). I doubt that Ford has much of a chance in AL but he should not be written off. We have been doling out our “Trump” checks to some combination of those state contests and I think we can pull off enough Senate wins to get a majority.
Which summer?
I read Texas is having a very predictable surge in cases. The most of any day during the pandemic. Governor Abbot is all over it. He is sending flowers to the next of kin.
