- Title: Fed reacted quickly and innovatively to coronavirus crisis - analyst
- Date: 23rd March 2020
- Summary: WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES (FILE - MARCH 27, 2019) (REUTERS) FEDERAL RESERVE BUILDING EXTERIOR
- Embargoed: 6th April 2020 18:39
- Keywords: Bannockburn Fed Federal Reserve Jerome Powell Marc Chandler credit for households small businesses and major employers
- Location: OCEAN GROVE, NEW JERSEY, WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES
- City: OCEAN GROVE, NEW JERSEY, WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Economic Events
- Reuters ID: LVA003C69XLJB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The U.S. Federal Reserve on Monday (March 23) rolled out an extraordinary new array of programs aimed at blunting the "severe disruptions" to the economy caused by the coronarvirus outbreak, backstopping an unprecedented range of credit for households, small businesses and major employers.
In a series of actions the Fed agreed to historical measures that would see it for the first time back the purchases of corporate bonds and direct loans to companies, expand its asset holding by as much as needed to stabilize financial markets, and roll out "soon" a program to get credit to small and medium-sized business.
It marks both a massive intervention into the U.S. economy by the central bank, and an quickly conceived move to adapt to the fact that the U.S. economy may need to shut its doors to keep people safe.
And according to one analyst, "the Federal Reserve should be commended," for the action. The Fed is "building on the playbook that it developed in the '08/09 crisis, but extending it," the Global Forex Managing Director, Marc Chandler, told Reuters.
Under the new programs, the Fed will lend against student loans, credit card loans, and U.S. government backed-loans to small businesses, and buy bonds of larger employers and make loans to them in what amounts to four years of bridge financing.
Nearly a third of the U.S. population is subject to new rules that close non-essential businesses and discourage people from leaving their homes in order to slow the spread of the virus. Hundreds of thousands of people have already filed for unemployment insurance in California alone, the state's governor said at the weekend, and many analysts are projecting declines in economic output next quarter that are far worse than the steepest drop during the Great Recession.
(Production: Aleksandra Michalska) - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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