Larry Kudlow’s Relentless Optimism Takes on the Coronavirus
The president’s top economic adviser says “we are not going to panic,” but his sunny outlook has been wrong before.
It’s shaping up to be a doozy of a Tuesday morning. At 10 a.m. on March 3, the U.S. Federal Reserve announces its first emergency rate cut since the global financial crisis. Soon after, in a hastily called press conference, Fed Chair Jerome Powell will tell reporters—and investors watching from afar who seem to be quickly losing faith in the healing powers of monetary policy—that responding to what’s now a quasi-global coronavirus outbreak and its economic fallout will require a “multifaceted” response from health and fiscal authorities.
A few hours later, the 10-year Treasury will set off alarms as its yield slips below 1% for the first time, and President Trump’s preferred gauge of his performance, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, will extend its most miserable streak since 2008.