Fed policy makers, like lawmakers, split on need for more fiscal aid By Ann Saphir
FILE PHOTO: The Federal Reserve building is pictured in Washington, DC
(Reuters) – As the White House and Congressional Democrats press for a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package that many Republicans say is more than what the country needs or can afford, Federal Reserve policymakers are also split on the issue.
“We are still in the teeth of this pandemic – and we are not out of the woods yet,” Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan told the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in an online event Monday.
He forecast, as vaccines get rolled out and more businesses can reopen, the U.S. economy will likely grow about 5% this year, enough to push unemployment down to 4.5%, from 6.7% in December.
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The U.S. central bank and Congress have responded more to the COVID-19 crisis than they did in the last crisis, Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari said, and they need to do still more to return the economy faster to its pre-crisis footing.
“Right now I’m not concerned about it – this is like wartime spending,” Kashkari said at an online seminar held by Montana’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research, in response to a question about the risks of government borrowing too much in the face of the pandemic. “We have the capacity to do what we need to do.” (Reporting by Ann Saphir Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
By Reuters Staff
2 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari poses during an interview with Reuters in his office at the bank s headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., January 10, 2020. REUTERS/ Ann Saphir/File Photo
(Reuters) - The U.S. central bank and Congress have responded more to the COVID-19 crisis than they did in the last crisis, Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari said, and they need to do still more to return the economy faster to its pre-crisis footing.
“Right now I’m not concerned about it - this is like wartime spending,” Kashkari said at an online seminar held by Montana’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research, in response to a question about the risks of government borrowing too much in the face of the pandemic. “We have the capacity to do what we need to do.”
By Reuters Staff
2 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari poses during an interview with Reuters in his office at the bank s headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., January 10, 2020. REUTERS/ Ann Saphir/File Photo
(Reuters) - The U.S. central bank and Congress have responded more to the COVID-19 crisis than they did in the last crisis, Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari said, and they need to do still more to return the economy faster to its pre-crisis footing.
“Right now I’m not concerned about it - this is like wartime spending,” Kashkari said at an online seminar held by Montana’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research, in response to a question about the risks of government borrowing too much in the face of the pandemic. “We have the capacity to do what we need to do.”
Pandemic pushes more S.D. reservation residents to seek homeownership
Nick Lowrey
South Dakota News Watch
The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed more Native Americans living on reservations in South Dakota to seek homeownership, a potential step toward greater family financial security and community stability in some of the state’s most impoverished regions.
But long-standing institutional, economic and geographic barriers continue to block some reservation residents from buying a home.
During the first six months of 2020, 193 people enrolled in first-time homebuyer and financial literacy classes offered by reservation-based community development groups as a prelude to buying a home. During all of 2019, 190 people enrolled in the courses, according to data collected by the South Dakota Native Homeownership Coalition.