Economics
Fed’s ‘Run It Hot’ Recipe Works for Markets. Jobs? Not So Much
- Powell highlights burden of pandemic falling on the vulnerable
- But central bank is short of tools to remedy stark inequality
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
This article is for subscribers only.
Jerome Powell likes to point out how the Federal Reserve’s run-it-hot policy to prolong growth helped low-income Americans get jobs and pay raises.
But after those gains were blown away by the coronavirus, the Fed chair’s zero-rates rescue is falling short of helping the most vulnerable in the labor market. Instead, it may end up widening inequalities.