Order to support Economic Growth following the coronavirus pandemic. This News Conference runs an hour. Good afternoon everyone. Thank you for joining us. Our country continues to face a difficult and challenging time as a pandemic is causing tremendous hardship in the United States and around the world. People have lost loved ones and many millions have lost their jobs and there is great uncertainty about the future. At the Federal Reserve we are strongly committed to using our tools to do whatever we can and for as long as it takes to provide some relief instability to ensure the recovery will be a strong as possible and to limit lasting damage to the economy. The most important response to the crisis has come from a healthcare workers and on behalf of the Federal Reserve look me express our dedicated individuals who put themselves at risk day after day and service to others and to our nation. Let me also think the essential workers across the country who have helped meet our basic needs for goods and services during these difficult times. The virus in the forceful measures taken to control have a sharp decline in Economic Activity in search of job losses. Indicators of spending and production plummeted in april and the declined gdp in the Current Quarter is likely to be the most severe on record. Even after the unexpected positively unemployment report, nearly 20 million jobs have been lost on net since february and the Unemployment Rate has risen about ten Percentage Points to 13point to . As its highlighted by the bureau of labor statistics, this figure likely understates that employment accounting for the unusually large workers who reported themselves as a play babson from their jobs would raise the on appointment rate by about three Percentage Points. The downturn has not fallen equally on all americans and those least able to shoulder the burden have been most effective. In particular the rise and joblessness has been especially severe for lower wage workers, women and for africanamerican hispanics. In recent weeks some indicators suggest the modest rebound in segments of the economy such as Retail Merchandise and automobiles. Employment rose and many sectors in the employment edge down as some workers returned to their jobs from temporary layoffs. With the easing of social distancing across the country people are increasingly moving about in many read business is resuming to various degrees. At the seam time many households have got to be as payments and unemployment which are supporting incomes and spending. Activity in many parts of the economy has yet to pick up and overall has put us far below earlier levels. Moreover despite the improvement of the jobs report unemployment remains historically high. Weak demand especially in sectors most affected by the pandemic is holding down consumer prices. As a result inflation has fallen below are symmetric 2 objective. Indicators of longerterm Inflation Expectation have been fairly steady. The extent of the downturn in recovery remain uncertain and will depend in large part on our success and containing the virus. We all want to get back to normal but a full recovery is unlikely to occur until people are confident that its safe to reengage and a broad range of activities. The severity of the downturn will depend on the policy actions at all levels of government to provide relief and support the recovery of the Public Health crisis passing. The feds response is guided by our mandate to promote maximum employment as stable prices for the American People along with a responsible lease to promote the stability of the Financial System. We are committed to using our full range of tools to support the economy in the challenging time. In march we quickly lowered our policy Interest Rate to near 0 where we expect to keep it until we are confident that the economy is weathered recent events, on track to achieve our goals, weve also been taking broad and forceful actions to support the flow of credit in the economy. Without access to credit, families can be forced to cut back on necessities or lose their homes, businesses can be forced to downsize or close resulting in further losses of jobs and income in worsening the downturn. Preserving the flow of credit is essential for mitigating the damage to the economy and setting the stage for the recovery. Since march weve been purchasing sizable quantities of treasury and mortgagebacked securities in order to support the smooth functioning of these markets which are vital to the flow of credit in the economy. Our ongoing purchases have helped to restore Market Conditions and have fostered more financial conditions. As market functioning is approve census drains experience in march, we have gradually reduce the pace of these purchases to sustain smooth market functioning and thereby foster the effective transmission of Monetary Policy to broader financial conditions, we will increase our holdings of treasury and agency mortgagebacked security in coming months at least at the current pace. We will closely monitor developments and are prepared to adjust her plans as appropriate to support our goals. The Federal Reserve is undertaking programs to provide stability to the Financial System and to more directly support the flow of the credit in the economy for households and businesses of all sizes and state and local governments. These programs benefit the economy by providing financing which is other not wise available for in addition by serving as a backstop to keep credit markets the programs can increase the willingness of private lenders to extend credit, many of these programs rely on emergency lending powers that are available only in very unusual circumstances such as these we find yourselves in today. We are deploying these lending powers to an unprecedented extent enabled in large part by financial backing and support by congress and the treasury. And we will use these powers forcefully, proactively and aggressively until were confident that were solidly on the road to recovery. When the time comes after the crisis has passed we will put these emergency tools back in the toolbox. I would stress that these are lending powers, not spending powers, the fed cannot grant money to particular beneficiaries, we can only pray programs for facilities with broadbased eligibility to make loans to solve entities with the expectation that the loans will be repaid. Many borrowers will benefit from these programs as with the overall economy but for many others getting a loan that may be difficult to repay may not be the answer. In these cases direct support may be needed elected officials have the power to spend and make decisions about where we as a society should julie enter direct our collective resources. They provide direct help to people and businesses in communities. This direct support can make a critical difference not just in helping families and businesses at a time of need but also in limiting longlasting damage to our economy. At this meeting my colleagues and i continue our discussion of approaches for conducting Monetary Policy when the federal funds rate is that is lower bound. The measures we discussed included bullis it forms of Forward Guidance and asset purchases prereuses in the aftermath of the goebel financial crisis and they have become a standard part of our toolkit. We also reviewed the historical and foreign experience with targeting Interest Rates along the yield curve. It would usefully complement our main tools remains an open question. We will continue our discussion and upcoming meetings and our Monetary Policy stance income indication as more information about the trajectory of the economy becoming available. We also resumed our regularly Quarterly Economic projection or the sep. The sep is an input into our deliberations, not an outcome. It does not represent a committee view. Rather f moc purchase event write down the individual views of the most likely path for the economy condition on each position view of the Monetary Policy. We tabulate the submissions and republish them as sep. Given the unusually high level of and certainty about the outlook many participants noted they see a number of reasonably path for the economy and is not possible to identify with confidence a single path as the most likely one. Nonetheless, we believe that regular publication of the sep provides a useful perspective on the way participants of the path ahead. But the june sep shows a general expectation of an economic recovery beginning in the second half of this year end lasting over the next couple of years supported by Interest Rates that remain at the current level near 0. Of course my colleagues and i will continue to base their policy decisions on the full range of possible outcomes and not an approved enter particular forecast. The Risk Management approach is the best way we can promote our maximum employment and stability goals in these unusually uncertain circumstances. Finally i want to acknowledge the tragic events that have begin put a spotlight on Racial Injustice in this country. The Federal Reserve serves the entire nation, we operate in and are part of many of the communities across the country where americans are grappling with in expressing themselves on issues of racial equality. I speak for my colleagues throughout the Federal Reserve system when i say theres no place of the Federal Reserve for racism and there should be no place for in our society. Everyone deserves opportunity to participate fully in our society and in our economy. These principles guide us in all that we do for Monetary Policy to focus on diversity and inclusion, our workplace into our work to ensure fair access to credit across the country. We will take this opportunity to renew rfid staff commitment to these principles. We understand that the work of the fed touches communities, families and businesses across the country, everything that we do is in service to republic mission, we are committed to using our full range of tools to support the economy and help assure the recovery from the difficult period will be as robust as possible. Thank you, i look forward to her questions. To the first question. Thank you, chair powell, the wall street journal, i want to ask about the economic projection and i realize that these are more of an educated guess and they suggest the Committee Sees quite a large output gap over the next two years and the committee did not take any steps to reinforce your Forward Guidance. My questions are first, what are you hoping to learn, how might that change your response and third, how close is the committee to reaching a decision on a more concrete Forward Guidance and whether yield caps might reinforce that guidance . First i would say we think Monetary Policy today is wellpositioned to support the economy in this challenging time. If we didnt think that of course we would change her policy now. As you know we lowered her policy rate very quickly, quickly than others and we said we will keep it there until the economy has weathered the effects of the virus and on track to achieve our goals. You can see in the dog plot as i think you pointed out the overwhelmingly the participants expect as a baseline expectation no rate increase at least through 2022 and if you look at surveys and forecasters are market produce reports, Financial Market prices et cetera, those reflect rates at the effective lower bound. The first thing is Monetary Policy is in a good place and well understood in the markets. Secondly, we have also taken strong mangers to support the flow of credit in the economy as a mansion and were continuing asset prices in coming months at a relatively high level. For all of those reasons we feel like policy is now in a good place. As we look ahead we see a path ahead for the economy is highly uncertain and depends on a significant degree on the path of the pendant. At this meeting we looked at some debt at Forward Guidance and asset purchases, we look carefully at those and received a briefing on historical experience with yield curve control. We will continue those discussions and upcoming meetings and evaluate our stance and communication as more information about trajectory of the economy becomes available. I would just say in terms of what were looking for, we expect to get a better understanding of the economies trajectory in particular how we should best deploy those tools to achieve those goals. So that is really what were looking to achieve an educated see were actively at work on that. Next gino. High chair powell, thank you so much particular question. I am curious about your inflation across the forecast and given how well you see inflation in the upcoming years, why is policy appropriate now and how do you think of it currently and if you could talk a little bit about what urgency you see in turning back to the 2 target . Current policy stance is appropriate. Remember were using our emergency 133 lending tools to an impressive extent and we said we wont go any lower than this and that were prepared to adjust as appropriate and rates are at the effective lower bound. So we have all of our tools in use in a strong way and what were waiting for is to learn more. If you look at the may employment report, it is a pretty good data surprised that anybody can remember, it is a pretty good illustration of how uncertain these times are. The economy is reopening and we will learn a whole lot about the path of the economy in the next incoming months, that is really what were looking for. In terms of inflation, you will know that we had a 128 month expansion and we never did quite get inflation back to 2 on a symmetric sustained basis. We got close for the last couple of years but we never did quite get there. I think we have to be humble about our ability to move inflation in particular when an appointment is going to be above most estimates of a natural rate above the median in our sep past the end of 2022. I think were in the right place now, we are working carefully, as we learn more and better understand in their path of the economy, we will be assessing what is the best way to to deploy all of our tools to achieve our goals in the best possible way and ill say again, the main report was a welcome surprise, very please, we hope we get many more like it. I think we have to be honest, its a long road depending on how you count it, well more than 20 Million People displaced in the labor market, it will take some time and we are going to be deploying our tools, all of our tools to the full extent to pursuit those goals, however, long it takes. Steve pgh thank you, mr. Chairman. I think i understand how the fed might react in the event that things come out worse than expected, i think i dont understand of things come up other than expected. How is the commitment to lower Interest Rates and if things end up better, you stick with a low interestrate as you projected them and for example unemployment or inflation that is animating, what are those numbers that you are looking for that might cause you to change the policy as is now projected. We just had a period of unemployment well before 4 that lasted two years and during that period of time we saw a lot of great things happening in the labor market and things you love to get back to, we did not see any problems with twice inflation it did not really react much. We would be looking to get inflation back up and be prepared to tolerate pretty low and welcome very low readings on employment based on what we saw in the last expansion. Again we are not thinking about raising rates, were not thinking about thinking about raising rates. What were thinking about is providing support for this economy and we do think this is going to take some time, mor mot forecasters believe that, this would be great if we got a whole bunch more months of job creation, notwithstanding that, there is a lot of people that are unemployed and it seems quite likely they will be a Significant Group and even after a long growth though still be struggling to find jobs and will still be providing strong accommodation for that. Thanks very much chair powell. There have been plenty of comparisons with the Great Depression of the 1930s, is that scenario and looking at a more traditional session and are you at all concerned that the Strong Performance of the stock market in the last few weeks is disconnected to the stark reality. I think the Great Depression is a great example or likely outcome or model for what is happening here, there are just so many fundamental differences, first the government response has been so fast and so forceful that the origin in economy in a healthy place and of course every economy has a longer run challenge and that includes our economy notwithstanding a 50 year low in unemployment and the longest expansion of her history in every reason they could continue. That is different from what was happening around the time of when the depression started, the Financial System was in very good shape, much better capitalized. It is not the right model, i would say were learning every month that passes were seen more in learning more importantly the next few months will be very important in learning what the real story will be. We will see the significant incoming data, and the opening of the economy, the reopening of the economy. I would say assuming that the disease remains or becomes pretty much under control, i think what you see is a very weak second quarter, historically weak and expansion that builds momentum over time, people will adjust a little gradually to some of the activities that would involve getting together in large groups in close quarters, those will be the harder parts of the economy to recover but ultimately we see a full recovery over time, that is really what i think im personally seen, you can see significant job growth as people return to their jobs but youre still going to face probably an extended period where it will be difficult for many people to find work, that is what you see and really many, many forecasts at this point and it doesnt mean its right but thats a broad expectation, certainly not the depression forecast. Thank you chris from the associated press. Thank you for taking the question. In the projection you didnt change the port in the long run of unappointed, that suggested that all of you so far dont see prospects for longterm damage but what kind of data are you looking at here to gauge the potential for the long return hits at the economy even as we have Something Like the may jobs report and we still have people return from temporary layoff, there can still be permanent job losses, what kind of data are you looking at to gauge the potential impact this is not the risk for the next few months but a risk over time of lasting damage to the productive capacity of the United States, typically into forms, one third extended periods of unemployment, people lose contact with the labor force and get out of touch with the skills that they need and they have a hard time getting back in, its very damaging to peoples lives in their working lives and also lowers and can increase the Unemployment Rate but also lower the Labor Force Participation rate which is a most worse to have people dropping out of the labor force when we need them in the labor force working. The other pieces businesses, shock like this that comes in is like a natural disaster, you would not want a lot of perfectly good businesses and mediumsize businesses that may not have a lot of rid of resources to sustain them and to go out of business permanently in a situation like that, this, we have no reason for intercourse businesses will go in and out and fail all the time, thats a healthy thing in capitalism and something that has to happen, this is potential. These are the things we worried about, we did not change, you are right we did not change or longer run estimate of potential growth or of an appointment rate. That in my thinking, the reason i did not change mine is that i think we can avoid that or avoid much of that, most of that, we do that with majors that keep people in their homes, that support hiring and growth that avoid unnecessary avoidable business insolvencies. Thats all the things are trying to do. Basically they look whats happened as i mentioned, something somewhere short of 25 Million People have did been displaced even after the may an appointment report, what were trained to do is create an environment which they have the best chance and go back to their old job and to get a new job. Thats the most important part of this exercise. Maybe is probably helpful to say that we wont have a longer run damage to the economy in these numbers will not change, i think it is way too early to changing. These are not meant to be short, they are longer run assessments. I have not change mine and im hopeful that i will have to change it. Good afternoon chair powell. I am struggling with two things and im hoping you can provide clarity. As the ongoing bond program, you say is needed to continue the smooth posting of market, i think most of us are not seeing stability in markets right now. If you can kinda give us some clarity of what youre seeing that needs to continue to be smooth at that level. Second you were just talking about concerns about small and mediumsize Companies Going out of business during this and i guess the Lending Program still is not running yet, when do you expect loans to start happening and you think the two month delay has hurt the chances of some companies surviving. There have been gauge in market function although fully not back to where you would say they were for example in february before the pandemic arrived. We dont take those gains for granted. This is a highly fluent situation and we are not taking this for granted. In addition as they pointed out in my statement, those purchases are also supporting highly accommodative financial conditions and thats a good thing. Thats why we are doing that. Turning quickly to main street. I would say what weve done on main street we listen to feedback, weve been out repeatedly for feedback and Breonna Taylor create a much more difficult product than the other facilities and i think the last set of changes that we made have been very positive for the facility and itll be better able to achieve its goals, weve use the time well. We are now in the final run up to starting the facility and what we did as you saw earlier, early this week or whenever we did it in the last few days was we lowered the minimum loan size and increase the maximum loan size, even more portly we linked maturity and stretched out the repayment significantly so borrowers will get a twoyear delay until they have to make a principled payment and a oneyear delay on interest. We have been hearing from borrowers and lenders that these will be very helpful, we made the changes and putting them through the facility, the next step will be to register lenders, at that time loans can begin to be made, shortly after that the facility itself will be in those facilities and those loans can be sold 95 acrosstheboard in a mainstream facility. All of that should happen quickly now and i do think this is been a challenging project but i think we have come to a better place and by the way we will be prepared to adapt further if we need to and that is true of all of our facilities, these are unique, there is no playbook here, you have to draw this up and then try it out and we have been very willing to adapt and we will continue to be. Matt from bloomberg. Hello chair powell, this is not with bloomberg news, i will not ask about regulatory forbearance. There is piecemeal put into place in various jurisdictions and applies to the Mortgage Market to prevent banks from foreclosing on the widespread Financial Hardship caused by the pandemic and with many of those expiring soon and many businesses that feel in dire strength, im wondering if any consideration is being given at the fed to more comprehensive regulatory forbearance majors or other regulatory measures to prevent businesses from going under just because they cant meet those payments . There has been some tweaks that the pay checks Protection Program on the physical side to address this but i want to ask you anything you might do on the regulatory side as well. Thank you. We can make changes to Bank Regulation and supervision. I dont know that we have the ability to make changes for example in mortgage payments and thats what youre thinking or credit card payments. That is something that could be legislative or could just be what the banks themselves are doing, theres been a tremendous amount of forbearance on part of the bank. I think our role there would be to encourage you but those are not decisions that we hold any Legal Authority to make and we encourage those decisions. I hope that is a response to your question. Scott mtr. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I know you cant wait too heavily on fiscal policy, but giving you report, do you think its important that congress extend the extra unappointed benefits . I think we try to keep her comments on fiscal policy at a high level in the come to your specific question but i would just say this, this is the biggest economic shock in the u. S. And in the world in living memory, we went from the lowest level of unemployment and 50 years to the highest level in close to 90 years and we did in two months extraordinary pearl. In appropriate lipid the response from fiscal authorities has been large, forceful and very quick by the standards of these things. Roughly 3 trillion congress has authorized, that is benefiting households, laidoff workers, small medium large business, hospitals, state and local governments, 14 of gdp is in a class by itself in terms of the size. It is also pretty innovative, the ppp and the Unemployment Insurance are quite innovative in the american context and they were difficulties in implementing but thats a function of their novelty i think. This program let me add the fed, we innovated enacted progressively and proactively and aggressively as well, you put this together, although that is making a difference now, you look at the income data in the expanded Unemployment Insurance and the stimulus checks have gone a long way to replacing lost income from job loss, i think youre seeing it in a job market data, many are given the ppp credit on that front and keeping Small Businesses going. So far it is a good response and having a big effect. The question is, it is big, everyone can see that is big, is it going to be big enough. That is a question in the question that i have been concerned about really is the issue of longer run damage to the economy, we are doing a fair job of getting to the first few months, more than a fair job, the question is that group of people who wont be able to go back to work quickly, what about them. That can be many millions of people, and who worked in parts of the economy that will be the slow ones to recover. We want those people back in the labor enforcement and want them getting jobs and they will need possibly further support. Its possible that we will need to do more and possible the congress will need to do more. In terms of the 600dollar Unemployment Insurance, i would not try to give congress advice on the specifics of that, i know from talking to people and reading the papers that they are looking at a whole bunch of different possible approaches Going Forward and some of those seem promising so were happy to give advice to people and ask for but probably not publicly. Thank you. Thank you turn powell im going to pick up just a moment ago, you been studious about guarding the needles in the interviews and as follows. In indicating there is likely to be a need for the stimulus traditional policy in the future, im going to try a hypothetical and if you want, if you were to find yourself in the senators office, we would be held up and described as positive as a welcome surprise and if he or she said this is an indication, i wonder what you would say, your message that this crisis, is how much urgency in dealing with us and we see that within the Federal Reserve, i wonder if youre worried about sense of urgency is not being matched and what the consequences of that might be if there is a fear as we look at the employment report and through the summer and you have more and more politicians inclined to wait and see what happens in a second question, you talked about your fear of a second wave of the disease and it strikes me, theres a difficulty, you talked about us weathering this crisis and through the storm is seems to me as they listen to the chatter coming from white house, politicians and epidemiologist, there is not agreement on what getting through this means and you have in a administration inclined if not direct, to opening up your economies perhaps too early, how problematic is that from having an agreement to having defeated this virus should and i want to be clear she and if you can look at why the measure of unemployment the labor market slack if you will is the use six major, thats the one that we talk about all the time that is used three by economist, the one that has a much broader measurement of slack in the economy, and use six, the level of unappointed has tripled from 7 to 21 , that amounts to 22 million additional people who have lost work in the economy, either by going to parttime or Something Like that, that is in the low 20s, that is post the main unemployment report, you can get a different way and look at the regular employment rate and you can take the 21 people who the list is on employment and add more on for the ones were miscoded and you can take those people who are suddenly out of the labor force, you put those together and that has gone over 24 million the 22 24000000 people have to get back them to work, somehow as a country we have to get back to work, they did not do anything wrong, this is a natural disaster, i think the responses have been great, thats the way i would think about, in terms f the man appoint report, it is so nice to see, i think what people were thinking, you start to get those back to work numbers in june in july and august, very few people saw them in may, almost no one saw that happening as early as mid may but he did. We dont necessarily know what that means whether its a timing change or prove to be much more than that, we will have to wait and see, as i mentioned earlier it is clear evidence of how uncertain things are and how humble we have to be about our ability to really have confident predictions. As opposed to just predictions. Bottom line i would say that is the key thing people need to understand, there is a lot of work to do in the labor market, we will stick with this and support that until the work is done, that is something that were going to do with all of her tools and i think it may require congress to help as well, it may but that will be the decision. You also asked about the second way. We have major responsibilities and powerful tools but the decision about when to reopen the economy is one for elected officials at the state and local and federal level and if they ask, we dont have any particular expertise of the fund and pinned mx or coronavirus or anything like that, we talked to experts but we dont have anything special to add on that, i would just say it is selfevident that if it happens, the issue would be first of all Peoples Health but secondly, you could see a public loss of confidence in parts of the economy that will be already slow to recover, it can hurt the recovery, even if you dont have a National Level pandemic, just a series of local ones in local spikes could have the effect of undermining peoples confidence and traveling in restaurants and entertainment, anything that involves getting people together in small groups and feeding them or find them around, those things can be heard, it would not be a positive development and i will leave it at that. Edward lawrence. Thank you, chairman powell for the question. You said lending facilities, at least 55 companies filed for bankruptcy, do you think that it is too late second of all does the future of these facilities, is this a oneyear impact to the economy to these facilities or is this a multiple year end if so how many years. We have Significant Interest we think and also remember lots and lots of companies are getting finance two. The banks are lending, the markets are open and you have a much better lending climate than certainly that we had in february and march. We do not think its too late though. We do expect it to be up quite soon. In terms of the timing of these things, we will leave them open for new loans as long as they need to, that will be a decision that we make with our colleagues at the treasury department. And at a certain point there wont be a need for further loans and the assets will be there, i dont know thats prettier question but i will say at that point, the useful role of the Federal Reserve is probably close to an end at that point, we dont have any expertise in managing pools of credit assets, loans if you will or bonds and we dont want to be made we dont want to be part of the decision to manage such a portfolio. We would be looking to have that done either someplace else or by a third party or the treasury department. Were working on ideas for that. The real focus now is getting these facilities going and getting them to do the job that they need to do. Donnell. Thank you, chair, i have two quick questions. If we have hit bottom at the economy, the second question is regarding the way that the pandemic has exacerbated racial inequality, i want to talk to what extent do you think you can factor in those disparities when youre thinking about. I would say many forecasters had been expecting a bottom for the economy around the middle of the year, it was a huge range of uncertainty and i think the labor market and the evidence of one job report in may, we dont know that, were going to see in many forecasters widely expect a recovery over the year, it is possible but the thing is we are not would overreact to single data point, were going to be very careful about reaching any conclusions of the good data or bad data, i think were going to be here with her tools supporting the economy for as long as its needed. I think theres a possibility that the bottom is coming at the labor market but we dont know that, we will know more as we go forward. In terms of the pandemic of the quality the pandemic hits everybody but an economic sense it hits those industries that are involved in groups of people entitled groups either in places where its the travel, leisure, restaurant, bars in the Service Economy jobs. A lot of the lost jobs with people who work in the Service Economy and the public in relatively to other jobs and low wages. And if you just look at what that is, an employment has gone up more for hispanics, more for africanamericans and women have an extraordinary and notable share of the burden beyond their percentage of the workforce. So that is really unfortunate, if you just go back to months where we were, we have effectively the first type labor market in the quarter century and for the last couple of years before the pandemic hit you or seen wages go up the most for people at the lower end of the wage spectrum, that was great and we were meeting with people from low and moderate communities all over the country and hearing dont change this, do whatever you can, keep this going, this is the best labor market weve ever seen and we had every expectation and to continue and then this comes. It is heartbreaking. And we want to get aback. We really want to get it back. I think we learned a number of things over the course of the last few years, one of them is, you can have three to half percent and implement for a couple of years and you see modest moves and wages in relatively almost invisible moves in inflation, that was not anybodys understanding of the economy are most people anyway. We can use our tools to support the labor market and the economy, we can use them until we do fully recover and thats what were planning to do. We dont target different groups, were cognizant of the fact that late in the last cycle the benefits go more to people at the lower end of the wage spectrum for the first time in many years, when they were markets are tight and when unemployment is low, we would really like to get back to that place. Victoria. I am victoria with political. I want to follow up on a couple of things alberta been asked. First of all on fiscal policy, you all put out your Economic Projections today and im curious to what extent fiscal policy is factored in or not factored into those projections. And how more or less fiscal policy might affect those projections. In my other question is on main street you mention multiple times theyre willing to expand the program, my question is what is the rush hold for those changes. Is it just making sure that borrowers that want to borrow through the program are able to do that . In terms of the way that we do forecast, we dont tend to incorporate things were highly uncertain about. And they were not included substantial, additional, physical support for the economy, maybe a modest amount. Something that looks like a lowing guess on what might come out of their current negotiation. And if there were more physical support, unc better results sooner and thats a question for congress, were spending a lot and that is really what they get to suicide. In terms of main street and willing to expand it further, one thing were looking at, very strongly is nonprofit. In is their way to incorporate them into that facility or similar facility in another dimension, if we had the great idea for changing main street, we wouldve done it and we have done some things that are very positive lately but as we learn more, it could be in terms of size and in terms of lots of Different Things but i think we have a good product to go to market with in a thicket of get there soon and will be willing to continue to adopt. Don. The vast majority are expecting to call other employers, at this point what is your expectation and how much are these job losses will be permanent. I dont have a reliable estimate of that, clearly not everyone will go back. And i would say many would go back, what is going to be the remainder when we reach the new normal, it is so uncertain but it could be a good number of millions of the people in many estimates. I would say youre so early in the process, people are going back and looking at other significant changes in the economy and theyve seen how many people go back when for example theres a technological change and things like that, you may see research and you come up with an estimate, its just going to be very hard to say. But my assumption is there will be a significant chunk well into the millions, i dont want to give you a number because its going to be a guest but well well into the millions of people who dont get to go back to their old job and in fact there may not be a job in the industry for them for some time, there will eventually be but it could be some years before we get back to those people finding jobs. When people lose a job, they can find a job in their own industry, thats the fastest way and no other people in the industry, different kinds of jobs, thats usually the fastest. If you have to go and start over again its much harder and thats where you lose people who fall out of the labor force and is very tough on their lives, we all know people. And hence our desire to do what we can to support this into support the recovery with the tools we have. Chair powell i want to get back to the issue of inequality and im wondering what more could the feds do with equality in this country, i know you said you dont target certain groups to do so, the way you can use as a benchmark and something to keep track of. We do keep track of all unappointed by all kinds edgy no all kind of different demographics particular the africanamerican unappointed rate which reached an alltime low since the data started being kept in the modern era. Enclosed is still close to twice unappointed rate or was back then and is certainly much higher now. And the best thing we can do with the Monetary Policy tools is to look at the evidence that we saw with our own eyes have recently in the economy can have very low unemployment and it could be lower than we were or lower than three and half without seeing financial imbalances and without seeing inflation getting out of control, we frankly did not get it back up to target, without seeing wages getting out of touch with where they should be. Thats the biggest thing we should do. , inequality is something that has been with us increasingly for more than four decades and its not really related to Monetary Policy, it is more related to a lot of theories on what caused it but its been something thats more or less been going up consistently for more than four decades and theres a lot of different theories, one of which is globalization and Technology Call for rising levels of skilled in altitudes and education in the u. S. Education kind of flattened out relative to her peers and flattened out over the period, that means if youre on the right side of those trends, then those things are good for you, if you are not the wages will stagnant. Wages for the bottom 10 really have not grown up in real terms and a really long time. And over a long period of time wages for the people at the top compensation in any way you cut it before taxes, after taxes, after transfers, all of those anyway you cut it compensation has gone up a whole lot in a house on conifer people from the bottom. If you look at the middle it has gone up for most under most of the groups. But not so much from the toprated terms. We call it out as an important factor in the economy and we will use our tools to support maximum appointment and take the definition to heart, but obviously its something that will require and all of society and government response. Thank you for the last question will go to michael. Mr. Chairman television and radio. I came across assist to sick the other day that amazed me, century march 23 emergency announcement, every single stock in the s p 500 has delivered a positive return, im wondering given the levels of the market right now, whether you or your colleagues feel that there is a possible that could pop in setback the recovery significantly or that we might pay capital misallocation that will leave us worst off when this is over. And second, inequality is not just about wages, its also about wealth in a number of studies suggested keeping rates low for so long in targeting the market after the great financial crisis that the fed did contribute wealth inequality in this country and im wondering if you think that there is some tweak or message you can give that would affect that . What we have targeted is broader financial conditions. If you go back to the end of february an early march, you had basically the World Markets realized in just about the same time, i remember that monday that there was going to be a Global Pandemic and the possibility that it will be contained in one province in china for all purposes it was not going to happen. It was iran, italy, korea and then it became clear in markets from that point forward investors everywhere in the world for a period of weeks wanted to sell everything that was in cash or shortterm treasury. They did not want to have any risk at all. What happened is market stopped working and companies cannot borrow or go over their debt, people cannot borrow, that the situation financial turbulence and malfunctions and it can greatly amplify the negative effects of what was clearly going to be a Major Economic shock. So when our tools were put to work to restore the market and some of that has happened in my opening remarks, thats a good thing, were not looking to achieve, we want investors to be pricing and risk like markets are supposed to do, borrowers are borrowing and lending their lending, we want the markets to be working and were not looking to particular level. I think her principal focus no is on the state of the economy and on the labor market and uninflation. An inflation is low and we think its very likely to remain low for some time below our target. It is really about getting the labor market back and getting in shape. Thats been our major focus. I would say if we are to hold back, because we would never do this, the idea and the concept that we would hold back because we think asset prices are too high, others might not think so but we decided that is the case, what would happen to those people that were actually legally supposed to be serving, were supposed to be pursuing unemployment and were pursuing Financial Stability but there you have a Banking System that is so much better capitalized, so much stronger, better aware of its risks in managing its risks and were highly liquid, you have all of those things and they have been lending and taking into pauses and a source of strength in the situation. I would say were tightly focused on the real economy goals and again, were not focused on moving asset prices in a particular direction at all, we want markets to be working and partly as a result of what we done, they are working and we hope that continues. Thank you very much. Live thursday on the cspan networks, at 10 00 a. M. The Senate JudiciaryCommittee Meets to vote on issuing subpoenas and the fbi investigation into russia interference in the 2016 election. At 1 00 p. M. The house a Administration Subcommittee looks at the impact of covid19 on voting rights. On cspan2 at 10 00 a. M. The Senate Continues work on legislation to Fund National parks and public lands. On cspan3 at 9 30 a. M. The Senate Committee examine social isolation and loneliness in the covid19 pandemic. And at noon the House Oversight subcommittee on coronavirus looks at the impact of covid19 on nursing homes. In more live coverage thursday on a website with va officials testifying before the House Veterans Affairs committee about the Department Response to the coronavirus pandemic. That gets underway at 2 00 p. M. Eastern and its available to watch at cspan. Org. With the federal government at work and d. C. 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