Post-COVID-19 Economy: Less From Washington May Be More

The bank could do more to help distribute money to small businesses— if the Federal Reserve agrees to ease restrictions imposed after Wells Fargo’ s fake account scandals. Small-business owners have so overwhelmed banks with requests for money— just days after the start of an emergency relief program— that Federal Reserve officials are considering easing…

The Fed announced that it would try motivating banks to make loans under the new S.B.A. program. The Federal Reserve said on Monday that it would help backstop a new government effort aimed at encouraging banks to lend to small businesses, moving in to support a new federal program that has gotten off to a rocky start. Congress has dedicated $350 billion to make…

The last time a serious economic downturn hit in 2008, Evan Schade was in high school and the crisis seemed like a news event that happened to other people. When nonessential businesses were closed last month in Kansas City, Mo., where he lives, Mr. Schade, 26, lost his job at a carpet store and almost all of the shifts in his second job at a coffee shop.

Executives at Boeing, for one, have indicated that they might not accept money authorized by the stimulus if they dislike the terms. The Treasury Department, led by Steven Mnuchin, a former investment banker, might try to avoid imposing conditions that companies find burdensome. And some lawmakers and experts argue that Mr. Mnuchin ought to resist the temptation…

Editor's Note: The Atlantic is making vital coverage of the coronavirus available to all readers. Fox News commentators, likewise, have argued that Americans should break free of the shackles of quarantine to reboot the economy. In a recent University of Chicago survey of dozens of prominent economists, almost all of them agreed with the idea that the economy…

The administration had been considering the action for several weeks, and President Trump mentioned such conversations in a recent news briefing. But according to a White House official, those discussions are now over. The news of the decision was previously reported by Politico.

Wealthy investors are concerned about COVID-19 and its short-term impact on markets yet remain optimistic about the long term economic outlook.

To alleviate that constraint, the U.S. Treasury- whose job it is to manage the government’ s finances and help the Fed keep the economy steady- has taken on some of the risk that Fed loans will not be paid back. Assuming only a fraction of loans will default, the Treasury contribution has allowed the Fed to lend much more without taking on additional risk.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN Monday that President Trump decided to extend social distancing restrictions for another 30 days after viewing models projecting coronavirus deaths over the weekend. Why it matters: The models project that the virus will infect millions of Americans and could kill 100,000 to 200,000…

As the coronavirus rages, Americans’ views of President Trump have risen slightly to reach record highs, polls show. In both cases, Democrats feel this way almost unanimously, and Republicans overwhelmingly agree. As he responds to the pandemic, Mr. Trump has seen a small uptick in his approval rating, which hit record highs in surveys released this week by Gallup,…

Joe Biden and other Democrats were already talking about health care before the coronavirus, but the outbreak gives new urgency to a central issue for the party. On Monday, Joseph R. Biden Jr. sent a letter to President Trump and Republican state officials that emphasized the sorts of immediate threats Americans are feeling, and criticized those Republicans for…

Congress is set to pass an enormous stimulus bill to reduce the impact of lockdowns, while the White House talks about ending lockdowns.. The White House also seized on opinion pieces like this NYT Op-Ed by David Katz, the founding director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, that questioned the guidelines about flattening the infection curve…

With March market drops worrying advisors and investors alike, DPL Financial Partners is opening its network of annuities and related insurance products to non-members, at no charge, until June 1. While a pandemic and portfolio divot is never good news, investors on the cusp of retirement or those having recently entered retirement are particularly…

The proposal also qualifies SEC- and state-RIAs as accredited investors. The SEC originally issued a concept release on the proposed rule in June of 2019, with a revised rule published on the Commission’ s federal register in mid-January, followed by a 60- day comment period. By expanding the definition of which investors can participate in private offerings—…

Global financial markets have blown up. It could take at least $1.5 trillion to soothe the market’ s anxieties. Anything less and the markets may revolt, pushing prices down further and ultimately forcing Congress to provide the full $1.5 trillion, or more.

The extraordinary actions of the Federal Reserve on Monday morning can be boiled down to two sentences: There is a rapidly developing shortage of dollars across the economy. The Fed, the one entity in the world with the power to create dollars out of thin air, has every intention of doing so at whatever magnitude is necessary to try to reduce the severity and limit…

The Federal Reserve unveiled a vast expansion of its efforts to shore up businesses and keep markets functioning. But the brief boost for Wall Street was soon wiped away as Washington lawmakers failed again to come together on a nearly $2 trillion rescue package. Boeing said it was temporarily idling 70,000 factory workers in Washington State after about 30…

Senate Democrats blocked a $1.8 trillion stimulus plan on Sunday, preventing the largest such bill in American history from advancing in the chamber. It was an“ eerie echo” of 2008, the NYT reports, when House Republicans initially blocked a Wall Street bailout bill. Then it will take time to reconcile a Senate agreement with a House bill.

President Trump and some of his senior officials are losing patience with the doctors’ orders. The state of play: Amid dire predictions for jobs and the economy, the White House is beginning to send signals to business that there's light at the end of the tunnel — that the squeeze from nationwide social distancing won't be endless. Trump tweeted at 10 minutes to midnight: “WE…

A week ago, Mark Canlis’ s restaurant in Seattle was offering a $135 tasting menu to a bustling dining room every night. Eileen Hornor’ s inn on the Maine coast was booking rooms for the busy spring graduation season. And Kalena Masching, a real estate agent in California, was fielding multiple offers on a $1.2 million home.

The coronavirus and resulting market chaos have clearly caused clients to worry about the health of their family, themselves and their portfolio. Times like these are when advisors truly earn their keep- to be in communication and help clients stay calm when it’ s too easy to panic. Volatile markets provide the wise advisor with a chance to educate clients on why…

If history is any guide, not much will change in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic. During the influenza scourge of 1918, disorder was everywhere: As one American letter writer suggested, “The whole world seems up-side down.” Roughly 1 in 4 Americans caught the disease, and as many as 2.5 percent of them died.

Some auto and homeowners insurance companies are making moves to offer financial assistance to customers.

BEIJING— Global stock markets sank Wednesday in a third day of wild price swings after President Donald Trump and other world leaders promised aid to get their economies through the coronavirus outbreak. European markets were down about 5% after broad losses across Asia, while trading in Wall Street futures was suspended once again as losses hit the maximum…

That was President Donald Trump on Monday, responding to a question on whether the U.S. economy could be sliding into a recession. As it happened, the Treasury market was warning us all along. The chart below shows the 10- year Treasury yield minus the three-month Treasury yield.

The Trump administration is asking Congress to approve a massive economic stimulus package of around $850 billion to stanch the economic free fall caused by the coronavirus, four officials familiar with the planning said Tuesday. The $850 billion package would come in addition to another roughly $100 billion package that aims to provide paid sick leave for…

Shortly after the stock market began its initial descent, Rob Phelan, a high school math teacher in Maryland, received an email sales pitch:“ The Coronavirus may be Fatal— to Your Retirement Savings! The note, punctuated with exclamation points, offered a seemingly magical solution, something called a fixed-index annuity. The note, which Mr. Phelan received earlier…

Government intervention and assurances, from a $50 billion spending package to combat the outbreak in the U.S. to directives from President Trump to “buy the dip” have done little to subdue Wall Street's distress. Even the Federal Reserve taking its most drastic steps to shore up the economy since the 2008 financial crisis was met with outsized volatility, amid…

–The Federal Reserve’ s shock interest-rate cut and bond-buying program rippled through global markets on Monday, with S&P 500 Index futures falling by the most allowed and Treasury yields plunging at the start of what promises to be another volatile week. The Fed panicked and the market is spooked. James McCormick, global head of desk strategy at NatWest…

Investors are rushing into money market funds and corporations have tapped their credit lines.

Now that the Federal Reserve has fired its monetary policy bazooka — announcing Sunday the second emergency interest rate cut in as many weeks, this one taking rates effectively to zero — expect the drumbeat for fiscal stimulus to pick up, as more economists pound the table for government action. Why it matters: Market watchers of all stripes agree that the Fed's tools alone…

Retirement takes a backseat with nearly half of this population taking early withdrawals ARLINGTON, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–E*TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC) today announced insights from its most recent wave of StreetWise, the E*TRADE quarterly tracking study of experienced investors. As part of its Diversity in Financial Services Thought Leadership series, E*TRADE…

It has been worse. The roughly 10 percent drop in U.S. indexes yesterday was only half as bad as the daily drop on Oct. 19, 1987. The S&P 500 is back to where it was in January 2019. Other markets have retrenched even further. Much of the gains made since President Trump took office have evaporated. His approval rating tends to move in line with the markets, an association…

Michael Kitces, director of research for investment advisory firm Pinnacle Advisory Group, co-founder of the XY Planning Network for financial planners, founder of the popular Nerd’ s Eye View blog at Kitces.com and one of the most prolific writers and speakers on the evolution and practices of the financial planning profession, will join Focus Financial-…

Will coronavirus make Joe Biden president? When he launched his presidential campaign 10 months ago, Biden cast himself as a sober, seasoned antidote to the disruptive politics and chaotic style of Donald Trump. The rap against Biden was that he was incurably nostalgic, anachronistic, even out of touch— as when he claimed Republicans would experience “an…

An oil glut and a deadly virus walk into a stock market…. This article is part of the Debatable newsletter. Investors panicked because of two coinciding risks to the global economy, as Neil Irwin explains in The Times: the spread of Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, and a shock to oil prices sparked by two of the world’ s largest producers.

White working-class voters lifted Bernie Sanders to victory over Hillary Clinton in Michigan four years ago, but Joe Biden won that demographic on Super Tuesday, as well as African-Americans. With Mr. Biden the beneficiary of a surge after carrying 10 states on Super Tuesday last week, Sanders supporters in Michigan, which votes Tuesday, know they are his…

A global disease outbreak isn’ t the kind of risk that many investors were trained to react to. The S&P 500 index has dropped 12 percent since Feb. 19, the sharpest dive in nine years. The plunge has obliterated roughly $3 trillion in wealth.

The past two weeks were among the worst in recent Wall Street history, as anxiety about the coronavirus outbreak gave way to alarm and drove panicked investors to sell their stock holdings, obliterating roughly $2 trillion in wealth. On Friday, even after a slug of good news— the Labor Department reported that 273,000 new jobs were created in the United States…

The unemployment rate ticked back down to 3.5%.

U.S. stocks braced for another round of chaotic trading Friday to cap an already tumultuous week, with futures markets falling sharply on continuing coronavirus gloom. Trading was even rougher in Europe, with the benchmark Stoxx 600 index and Germany's DAX both plummeting 3.5 percent, France's CAC 40 tumbling 3.7 percent and Britain's FTSE 100 slid 3.3…

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York president, John C. Williams, said central banks were working in tandem to tackle the global economic threat. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York president, John C. Williams, made clear on Thursday evening that officials viewed the emergency rate cut they approved earlier this week as part of an international push to cushion the…

Bernie Sanders is one of the leading candidates for the Democratic nomination. The national debt is $23.4 trillion, and the projected 2020 national deficit is $1 trillion. Wealth and income inequality are at extraordinary levels and eroding trust in democratic societies according to the United Nations. U.S. life expectancy hasn’ t kept pace with other wealthy…

Robert Shapiro is the chairman of Sonecon, an economic and security-related advisory firm, and was undersecretary of commerce for economic affairs under President Bill Clinton. The Federal Reserve's interest rate cut on Tuesday certainly won't hurt the financial markets or the real economy, but as the subsequent steep drop in stock prices shows, the cut…

The coronavirus that has tightened borders, led to massive disinfection programs and roiled global markets has been detected in at least 70 countries.

The stock market’ s correction was minor. People were just looking for a reason to take their profits. Look past the initial shock, and one thing is clear: Investors’ legitimate concern about the spread of the coronavirus is the best thing to happen to the U.S. stock markets since Donald Trump became president.

Wall Street has often adopted a simple playbook when facing a stock market plunge:“ Buy the dip.” Not lately. But last week, as coronavirus cases turned up around the world and new information kept pouring in— photographs of deserted business districts in Milan, a stark warning from an official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday, news that a…

As the stock market dropped again on Friday, Jerome H. Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, issued a short statement affirming that the central bank would use its tools and“ act as appropriate to support the economy.” After the Fed’ s statement, the S&P 500 pared some of its losses, closing the day down 0.8 percent, though the index remained down 11.5 percent for the week.

TAMPA— Windhaven Insurance is closing its Tampa office and laying off 61 employees as of Friday. Windhaven said the move is taking place because of“ a lack of liquidity and capital,” chief restructuring officer Gregory J. Hoeg said in a letter this week to Tampa Mayor Jane Castor and the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. The Tampa staff, which has worked…

“Senator Sanders’ s Medicare for all push will be a long, long, expensive slog,” Mr. Biden said of the Vermont senator’ s sweeping single-payer proposal.“ Patients can’ t afford to wait. Mr. Biden, who delivered his remarks to cameras, has steadily ramped up the pace and focus of his attacks on Mr. Sanders, reflecting the threat the senator has increasingly posed to Mr. Biden…

WASHINGTON— The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 2.1% in the final quarter of last year, but damage from the spreading coronavirus is likely depressing growth in the current quarter and for 2020 as a whole. That fears have inflicted the worst losses on U.S. stocks in two years, less than a week after Wall Street was hitting record highs. To try to demonstrate the…