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‘This is a planned, organized partial shutdown of the U.S. economy in the second quarter. The overall goal is to keep everyone, households and businesses, whole... It is a huge shock and we are trying to cope with it and keep it under control.’ That’s Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard explaining to Bloomberg News why he sees the U.S. unemployment rate hitting 30% in the coming months as the world continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic.If his gloomy jobs projection proves to be true, unemployment would be worse than it was during the Great Depression and...

This is an excerpt:Dial “M” for Monetary Policy — New York Association for Business Economics, Harvard Club of New York, New York, Feb. 17, 2009 (PDF version) New York Association for Business Economics Harvard Club of New York New York Feb. 17, 2009 Four aspects of the current situation According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the U.S. economy has been in recession since December 2007. Real national income held up remarkably well through the first three quarters of this recession—especially given the ongoing financial turmoil. But real output contracted rapidly in the last quarter of 2008, declining 3.8...