Episodes

Friday Apr 10, 2020
Alternative Visions - Explaining the US Economic Bailout
Friday Apr 10, 2020
Friday Apr 10, 2020
In today’s show Dr. Rasmus unravels and explains the array of bailout measures being passed by Congress (3 Acts + 1 in the works) and the Federal Reserve Bank’s multiple programs to inject trillions of dollars into financial markets and non-financial businesses alike. How are the two bailouts—Congress and the Fed’s—integrated? How much of the trillions of loans, grants, tax cuts, subsidies, unemployment benefits, cash checks to households, etc. are actually getting into the economy and how much in bottlenecks. Is the magnitude of the bailout sufficient to prevent a great recession like 2008-09? What about the ‘composition’ (% spending, tax cuts, loans, grants, etc.)? Is it the right ‘mix’ to have an effect? Will the Fed’s trillions of liquidity injection be enough to prevent business, local government and household defaults that can lead to a financial crash? Why are many economists, following Trump’s lead, saying the economy will recover rapidly in the second half of this year despite the record collapse of the economy in this quarter? How does 2020 compare so far with 2008-09? With 1929-33?