Shuli Ren, Columnist

Starting to Feel Like China's Got a Handle on Things?

You’re not alone. The Fed could learn a thing or two from the PBOC’s response.

March 4, 2020 at 2:37 AM UTC

Updated on

March 4, 2020 at 3:26 AM UTC

Shuli Ren is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asian markets. A former investment banker, she was a markets reporter for Barron’s. She is a CFA charterholder.

Admittedly, things have been better.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

About 80,000 infected cases and 3,000 deaths later, the one lesson China has learned from the coronavirus outbreak is that it’s very contagious and highly disruptive. Now Beijing can teach the Federal Reserve a thing or two about how to contain its financial destruction.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell may have thought he was ahead of the curve by cutting rates 50 basis points before the central bank’s scheduled March meeting. Yet traders were unimpressed by Powell’s reluctance to go further, which sent the S&P 500 Index 2.8% lower Tuesday. The Chinese yuan strengthened 0.68% against the U.S. dollar in Asian trading, the most this year.