The Fed Brings the Global Financial System Back From the Abyss
- Easing dollar shortage, corporate bond issuance signal success
- Questions remain about health of riskier debt markets
Jerome Powell
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/BloombergSign up here for our daily coronavirus newsletter on what you need to know, and subscribe to our Covid-19 podcast for the latest news and analysis.
Sitting calmly in front of a bookshelf filled with thick volumes of the “Federal Reserve Bulletin,” Jerome Powell this week set out to offer a simple explanation for the complicated steps the U.S. central bank is taking to relieve dire stresses in the global financial system.
“Many places in the capital markets, which support borrowing by households and businesses -- I’m talking about mortgages and car loans and things like that -- have just stopped working,” the Fed chair told NBC’s “Today” show, in a rare television interview. “So we can step in and replace that lending under our emergency lending powers.”