US Federal Reserve Unveils Drastic New Strategy

24 mar 2020

Yesterday, the US Federal Reserve announced extensive new measures in order to help the US economy. This included a new asset purchase program, which included the purchasing of corporate bonds for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis.

These announcements were able to stop most of the day’s losses, but the US stock indices still managed to finish the day in the red, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing at a 3% loss, and the NASDAQ and S&P 500 also in the negatives.

Essentially, the US Federal Reserve has expressed that they are ready to spend an unlimited amount of money on bond purchases in order to try keep the economy afloat. This includes printing new money as needed.

In their press release, the Fed highlighted that their biggest priorities were to stop the loss of jobs in both the private as well as public sector, as well as to ensure a swift recovery to the economy once the virus pandemic settles.

This level and scale of intervention is something that has not been seen from the Federal Reserve since the 2008 recession. However, despite this massive amount of support, the US economy seems to be showing no signs of recovery for the time being.

The deciding factor now is next month’s NFP, or non-farm payroll data. This will measure how many jobs have been lost due to the impact of the coronavirus, and just how much trouble the US economy is really in.

While stock indices have fallen into the pattern of having a day of recovery after a big loss, they still inevitably continue to push lower and lower, with the Dow currently still trading below 20,000 points.

Large parts of the US are now under lockdown, with the citizens of California, New York, and other states all under similarly heavy lockdowns and being urged to stay at home.

Despite these drastic measures, there have also been concerns that the US government is not doing enough to prop up the economy.

For the second day in a row, Senate Democrats have once again moved to stop the coronavirus bill from being passed, citing concerns over how exactly big businesses would use this bailout money. This almost $2 trillion economic stimulus package, which was proposed by the Senate Republicans, is also an attempt to help businesses from losing money and employees from losing their jobs. Part of this plan is a proposed $1,200 check going to all US citizens, with those earning above $99,000 not being eligible to receive it. Democrats also opposed this part of the plan with concerns that it was not enough.