The scenarios also envision a global recession where US unemployment jumps to 10.75%, economic growth falls by 4%, and the stock market sheds 55% of its value.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It’s not surprising U.S. President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus emergency plan touched off concerns that a gusher of federal spending on the possible eve of a vaccine-fueled economic take-off might lead to inflation.
FILE PHOTO: Former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and Harvard University s Lawrence Summers delivers remarks at the National Association for Business Economics Policy Conference in Arlington, Virginia February 24, 2014. REUTERS/Gary Cameron/File Photo
What is surprising is who is doing the fretting: Not debt-hawk Republicans but former Treasury secretary, Democratic stalwart and Harvard University professor Lawrence Summers, who in a recent Washington Post essay said the Biden plan could “set off inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation . Stimulus measures of the magnitude contemplated are steps into the unknown.”
The U.S. economy is still in the "teeth" of the pandemic, the labor market is far from full employment, Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan said Friday.
Congress starts work on Biden s call for six-month renewal through end of September.
As Congress starts work on President Joe Biden s proposals to extend pandemic unemployment benefits, the acting director of the Oregon Employment Department says straightforward extensions that are on the table will be easier to manage.
But David Gerstenfeld also said he and counterpart agencies in other states would like as much lead time as possible to prepare for any changes and avoid interruptions in benefit payments. States pay benefits but the U.S. Department of Labor oversees them.
The latest extensions, which Congress approved at the end of December, are scheduled to end March 13.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday warned about an "explosion of risk" from digital markets, including the misuse of cryptocurrencies, but said new financial technologies could also help fight crime and reduce inequality.