Posted on 04/29/2020 4:43:58 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
The coronavirus crisis is crashing the U.S. economy at the fastest rate since the Great Depression, the government reported Wednesday, while the Federal Reserve pledged to keep interest rates near zero as long as it takes to bolster a recovery.
President Trump said the need for people to go back to work is so urgent that he wants to see a return soon to full-capacity restaurants, sports stadiums —and campaign rallies — with or without a vaccine.
“We want it to be the way it was,” Mr. Trump said during a meeting with business leaders at the White House. “We can’t have somebody with half a restaurant. That’s not going to pay the rent.”
With more than 26 million Americans having lost their jobs in the past two months, the Commerce Department said first-quarter economic output contracted at an annual pace of 4.8%. Adjusted for inflation, the drop from the fourth-quarter GDP of 3.6% matches the quickest and biggest fall since the Depression in 1932.
Consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of economic activity, fell by a whopping 7.6%.
And the plunge caused by the pandemic hasn’t hit bottom. The Congressional Budget Office is forecasting that U.S. gross domestic product will collapse at an annual rate of up to 40% for the April-to-June period.
Faced with those staggering numbers, the Fed signaled Wednesday that it will keep its short-term interest rate near zero for the foreseeable future. The central bank also said it will keep buying Treasury and mortgage bonds generally to spur lending.
“The Federal Reserve is committed to using its full range of tools to support the U.S. economy in this challenging time,” the Fed said.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said it’s clear that the impact of the coronavirus on the economy is severe.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
My Democrat neighbors want to see many months of lockdown ahead. They get angry at the thought of being allowed to walk thru the local park.
[[My Democrat neighbors want to see many months of lockdown ahead.]]
They are true to type. Insane and on the Government tit.
The actual data is showing this virus was overestimated in monumental numbers. Time to go back to shaking hands and opening stadiums.
If someone decides to shelter in place .... Fine .... open America and let the naysayers stay home ..... their decision and everyone should be allowed their decision ......
Trump unwittingly opened a can of worms (governors) and it ain’t going to be easy to get those worms back in the can.
Democrats are victims of tribalism in its worst manifestations.
My tribe better than your tribe ... even when your tribe is marching off into a desert inferno without water, food, and protective gear.
Hurray. This is exactly the drum he should be beating, and beating hard.
Either the computer models were right and Trump saved millions of lives with the lock-down or the computer models were wrong and we should never trust computer models like the ones that predict global warming/climate change ever again.
Their choice.
Thank goodness. I don’t know how they pulled it off but this was the biggest farce ever pulled on the American people. It’s dead Jim.
It's taken him this long to see that?
We have been saying that on Freerepublic for months.
So why the f*ck was Trump attacking Kemp when Kemp did exactly what Trump is now finally proposing?
A governor is only one citizen. A majority of citizens of that governor’s state trumps any decision by a lone governor
I don’t really care if New York and New Jersey decide to stay closed forever. That will be their problem.
But why the heck should South Dakota and Wyoming be shut down because people are dying or not dying for in New York?
Maybe you should call him and let him know. Just because he owns billions of dollars of hotels and restaurants doesn’t mean he is not an idiot compared to your knowledge.
Let the thing be pressed.
Good! Enough of this “new normal” BS. There is nothing “new” about Normal.
Trump unwittingly opened a can of worms (governors) and it ain’t going to be easy to get those worms back in the can.
....
Trump’s bosses are Drs Fauci and Birx! They keep Trump on a very short leash!
Maybe I have already sent several emails to the White House expressing my frustration over the economy killing lockdowns.
Be that as it may, he is now coming round to the point of view me and countless Freepers have been espousing, which is, you just can’t destroy the greatest economy we ever had and ruin countless lives over some disease which has killed vastly less than heart disease in any random year (50000 coronavirus versus nearly 700000 heart disease deaths every year)
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