{"id":100210,"date":"2020-11-07T09:38:59","date_gmt":"2020-11-07T01:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=100210"},"modified":"2020-11-07T09:39:01","modified_gmt":"2020-11-07T01:39:01","slug":"more-stimulus-needed-to-help-us-economy-says-feds-powell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=100210","title":{"rendered":"More stimulus needed to help US economy, says Fed\u2019s Powell"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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WASHINGTON, Nov 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The trajectory of Covid-19 remains key to the US recovery and until it is eradicated, more emergency spending will be \u201cessential\u201d to support the economy, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But with America\u2019s knife-edge election yet to be called, as state officials continue to tally ballots, the potential for a split government in Washington makes it less likely Congress will end months of gridlock and quickly approve another giant spending package to help workers and businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democratic challenger Joe Biden appears well-positioned to unseat President Donald Trump, but Republicans could retain control of the Senate \u2014 although the final outcome may not be known for weeks, until after at least one run-off election in Georgia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Powell steered away from any discussion of politics, saying the economy \u2014 not the election \u2014 was the focus of the two-day meeting of the Fed\u2019s policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recent spike in Covid-19 cases is \u201cparticularly concerning\u201d for the US economy, Powell told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the United States has done better than expected economically, the outlook \u201cis extraordinarily uncertain,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fed chief warned that despite a jump in growth, \u201cthe pace of improvement has moderated\u201d and spending has slowed, while the economy has regained just half the jobs lost in March and April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA full economic recovery is unlikely until people are confident that it\u2019s safe to re-engage in a broad range of activities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The support provided by the $2.2 trillion CARES Act \u201cwas absolutely essential in supporting the recovery that we\u2019ve seen so far, which has generally exceeded expectations,\u201d he said, but \u201cfurther support is likely to be needed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The central bank chief has been increasingly vocal in his calls for Washington to spend more to help support the recovery after most provisions of a massive stimulus measure passed in March expired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, despite months of negotiations, the White House failed to reach an agreement with congressional Democrats on a new stimulus package before Tuesday\u2019s presidential election, and the chances for passage of a broad set of measures to help businesses and unemployed workers remains in doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFiscal policy can do what we can\u2019t, which is to replace lost incomes for people who are out of work through no fault of their own,\u201d Powell said, calling government spending measures \u201cabsolutely essential.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He noted recent comments from lawmakers \u201cthat suggest generally that there will be something\u201d in the form of stimulus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who won reelection, said Wednesday he wants to quickly approve new legislation in the \u201clame duck\u201d session marking the final weeks of the current Congress, but in the past he has favored only limited programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The central bank earlier this year pumped trillions of dollars of liquidity into the financial system and cut the benchmark lending rate to zero, and the FOMC again committed to keep rates low for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Powell said the Fed has more tools available, however, he did not provide specifics or the certainty some analysts had been hoping to hear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can certainly look at new facilities\u201d if the situation deteriorates, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But \u201cif you want to get the economy back as quickly as possible to where we want it to be, then really it should be all of government working together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the Fed is considering again extending its corporate lending facility beyond the current December 31 expiration date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also could ramp up the already massive purchases of government debt and mortgage-backed securities to keep money flowing through the US economy. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, Nov 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The trajectory of Covid-19 remains key to the US recovery and until it is eradicated, more emergency spending will be \u201cessential\u201d to support the economy, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said. But with America\u2019s knife-edge election yet to be called, as state officials continue to tally ballots, the potential for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":100212,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100210"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=100210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/100212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=100210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=100210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=100210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}