Fed Chair Powell pleads for a new Covid relief package
"This is just terrible politics right now to tell people 'you're getting no relief help' just one month before the election. So we have to wonder if Trump's steroid medication is affecting his thought processes." - Rachel Maddow last night
The Financial Times lead domestic story Tuesday elaborated how Dotard Trump is now ready to send the U.S. economy off a cliff- even as he does so with his own WH staff - no thanks to subjecting them to the virus. According to the FT, Captain Bonespurs will partake of no Covid relief package until after election day and that is provided he wins. Asked for an interpretation of this decision, historian Michael Beschloss on ALL In said: "It is the historical example of the tyrant saying 'if the people will not support me, then let them perish."
According to the FT, Fed Chair Jay Powell warned U.S. policymakers that providing too little support for the American economy would be far more dangerous than offering excessive help, as he made one of this most detailed appeals for more fiscal stimulus.
Speaking to the National Association for Business Economics, Powell said the economic recovery from the damage inflicted by the coronavirus was “far from complete” and the “risks of policy intervention are still asymmetric”. He added:
“Too little support would lead to a weak recovery, creating unnecessary hardship for households and businesses,”
Powell’s comments came after the employment report for September showed a slowdown in job creation last month, coupled with a drop in the unemployment rate to 7.9 per cent driven by an exodus from the labor force. Meanwhile, permanent job losses are creeping up.
In other words the trope that the economy is "in recovery" mode is a whole lot of bunkum, because the lower unemployment rate is really a mirage. It's a mirage because the rate is lower from more people leaving the labor force - not from more people being employed reducing the surplus workforce. Truthfully, in the economic favorability polls Biden ought to therefore be 40 points ahead of Dotard, not essentially even. (Though being even is better than Bonespurs being ahead!) This shows too many still don't get the connection between the economy and the virus, and if a leader has poorly contained the latter he cannot be superior in the former.
Powell is worried because he knows this translates into less consumer spending. Consumer spending in the U.S. makes up 70 percent of the GDP, and much less means we are headed for a much more prolonged recession - maybe even a depression. If people lack jobs then they have no money, and can't spend what they don't have. This is where the government ought to have come in, as it did in the CARES Act back in March. For reference, that government aid is credited with helping the economy through the spring and summer- thanks to a 1 percent increase in consumer spending.
But given the $1,200 stimulus checks sent to each citizen were bound to run out, that spending couldn't last forever. In addition, up to 11 million face evictions as rent moratoriums are terminated, and up to 80 million could face cuts in utilities for a similar reason. All of this gets much worse with no fiscal aid. (To fix attention, hundreds in Denver have already been evicted from their apartments and have to live on the streets. Only yesterday it was reported - Denver Post, p. 4A - they have joined a lawsuit with other already homeless to halt police raids on encampments.)
In the words of Gregory Draco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economist, quoted in the Denver Post barely four days earlier:
"Unless employment growth picks up or additional fiscal aid is extended, consumer spending is at risk of slowing dramatically."
Trump’s response? He announced Tuesday that he was ending talks with Democrats on the bill, which aimed to send more aid to Americans grappling with high unemployment and to help state and local governments stay afloat as tax collections plummet, sent the stock market sliding. No wonder as it was the equivalent of financial hari kari.
As usual also Trump barked out lies and BS, e.g.
“Our Economy is doing very well. The Stock Market is at record levels, JOBS and unemployment also coming back in record numbers. We are leading the World in Economic Recovery, and THE BEST IS YET TO COME!”
All of which is bollocks and nonsense. The stock market is only up because Trump cut corporate taxes in half and sliced regulations, i.e. that keep your water clean and meat and milk from being laden with maggots and E. Coli.
Given Powell's assessment and the unemployment rate mirage - combined with increased job losses - we are actually the tail end in recovery amongst nations. This is reinforced by the fact most other nations increased relief for their citizens while Trump and McConnell sat on further help.
Further, the worst is yet to come and Trump knows it. He knows his whole "great economy" is all a sham, a PR Mcguffin, a canard. He knows deep down that even the stock market will crash given he's detached it from the control of the raging virus. He can see from reading the 'tea leaves' (the polls) his days are numbered and he will be a lame duck by November 4th.
Knowing this, he has no intention of tossing a lifeline to the millions of people who need it - and who he believes will all vote Biden. Hence, historian Michael Beschloss' grim assessment: The tyrant seeing his days ending and so declares the people can perish. He has no use for them anymore. If they will not show proper respect and adhere to his commands, they can go suck salt.
Biden countered on Twitter that “the President has turned his back on you.” No truer words were ever said, and more of Trump's base may now finally see that as we behold erosion of Trump's support umbers (from 43% average to 39%) in the polls.
The latest news is that Trump's steroid med (dexamethasone) may be wearing off a bit so now he is more inclined to strike a deal before the election, as opposed to "after I win". Good thinking there, Dotard, especially as a poll Monday night showed by a 3 to 1 margin (75% to 25%) Americans want congress working on a relief package, not getting a new justice seated.
But it may still be too little and too late - especially as it's a piecemeal farce that does nothing for those facing eviction or having their gas and electric turned off.
Bottom line is no one can trust anything escaping the ruddy piehole of this fungal eruption. This is especially given what we've beheld the past few days - a so-called president hopped up on dope, errr....Covid meds, with his loose lips totally detached from his brain.
See Also:
And:
No comments:
Post a Comment