covid crisis
Economic History, Financial Markets, Legal Analysis, Money & Politics, News, The Fed & Central Banks
Ending the Fed's Emergency Lending Facilities: Mnuchin v. Waters
On November 19, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced that he would sunset five of the Federal Reserve's emergency lending programs at year-end: the Primary Market Corporate Credit Facility, Secondary Market CCF, Municipal Liquidity Facility, Main Street Lending Program, and Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF). His decision,…
The New Deal and Recovery, Part 3: The Fiscal Stimulus Myth
"[The COVID-19 crisis] wouldn't be the first time America has resorted to large-scale fiscal stimulus in a peacetime emergency. The New Deal of the 1930s, a response to the Great Depression, is probably the most far-reaching example." (Katia Dmitrieva, "The Times America Went Big and Flooded Economy…
Paycheck Protection Program: Who Lent to Whom, and Where?
It's been 11 weeks since Congress passed the CARES Act, which, among its many other provisions, established the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Nearly three-quarters of U.S. small businesses have so far availed themselves of this program. But it turns out that fewer small businesses got a PPP…
The New Deal and Recovery, Part 1: The Record
"Under the New Deal, the US economy grew at rapid rates, even for an economy in recovery." (Eric Rauchway, The Money Makers, p. 100.) Before I start telling you what "the New Deal" did and didn't do, I had better make clear what I mean by the…