Wow...
Roughly 15 of every 100 adults who wanted to work found themselves jobless that month, many of them suddenly.
Stocks had plunged in value so precipitously that US households would lose 5.5% of their wealth in just the first three months of the year. (@nytimes)
Roughly 15 of every 100 adults who wanted to work found themselves jobless that month, many of them suddenly.
Stocks had plunged in value so precipitously that US households would lose 5.5% of their wealth in just the first three months of the year. (@nytimes)
Amid government-imposed shutdowns, with millions of people at home, there were real worries that the economy would implode.
The Fed has long had sweeping authority to use its ability to create money out of thin air to save the financial system and economy in times of trouble.
The Fed has long had sweeping authority to use its ability to create money out of thin air to save the financial system and economy in times of trouble.
The Fed staged a no-holds-barred intervention to stabilize.... economy, slashing interest rates to rock bottom, buying trillions... bonds... promising trillions more in emergency programs that would keep loans flowing to municipal and corporate borrowers and midsize businesses.
Its actions could set a precedent for the next economic crisis, one in which Fed officials — insulated from voters by design — are left making sweeping decisions that shape which businesses, governments and economic sectors thrive and which ones struggle.
Central bankers tried to avoid picking winners and losers in 2020, at times resisting partisan pressure to do so, but that often owed to the personalities in charge rather than to strict legal limitations.
The rapid inflation that took off in 2021 has spurred other questions about the Fed’s pandemic response. Specifically, is it partly to blame? It made money cheap when factories were shut and demand did not need such a big and lasting boost.
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