During a Thursday interview on NBC’s “Today,” Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell discussed the risks taken to help the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Host Savannah Guthrie asked Powell if there was a risk of inflation from the Fed allowing more money to be printed, but the chairman downplayed any such fear, saying what the Fed is doing is “healthy” and “positive.”
“You know, we don’t really see that,” Powell replied. “What we see is small, medium and large businesses are not able to borrow through their normal channels to some extent. And so, we step in and replace that. That’s a very healthy thing. That’s a positive thing. We’re providing relief, we’re providing stability … we’re trying to create a bridge from our very strong economy to another place of economic strength, and that’s what our lending really does. It’s very broad. It’s across small, medium and large businesses. We are already helping state and local governments, and just places where credit is not being offered where it should be offered, where it’s really just a question of liquidity and credit availability, we can step in and make that happen. And that’s a very positive thing and an appropriate thing to do in this highly unusual situation we’re in.”
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