Mnuchin: ‘Permanent Economic Damage’ if Country Doesn’t Reopen

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on “Fox News Sunday,” America could suffer “permanent economic damage,” if we do not reopen the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic.

When asked about the danger of reopening the economy too soon, Mnuchin said, “If we do this carefully working with the governors, I don’t think there’s a considerable risk. As a matter of fact, I think there’s a considerable risk of not reopening. You’re talking about what would be permanent economic damage to the American public.”

He added, “We are going to reopen in a very thoughtful way that gets people back to work safely, that has them social distance. One of the things we’ve seen, Chris, is a lot of businesses can do telework. Not ever, but he has to come back into the office at the same time, but people will be able to go into stores. Some of them will have reservations when they go in, but businesses will be able to reopen. I think, as you know, certain parts of the country had very devastating impacts, like New York and certain parts of the country didn’t. And this is all being monitored very, very carefully.”

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