President Trump is desperately trying to soothe the markets but by begging the Fed to cut the rates, which hasn’t happened since the 2008 drop, he is alarming some people.
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The Federal Reserve made an emergency cut the interest rate 0.5% on Tuesday to offset the plunge after the Trump administration’s bungled response to the coronavirus outbreak caused a panic in the markets, which hasn’t happened since the big Bush crash of 2008.
But Trump demanded an even bigger cut. And then the Dow fell by 500 points after “its biggest percentage gain since March of 2009 and largest ever point surge.”
“It’s great that the Federal Reserve recognizes that there’s going to be weakness, but it makes me feel, wow, the weakness must be much more than I thought. I’m now nervous. I’m more nervous than I was before,†CNBC’s Jim Cramer said on “Squawk on the Street†right after the sudden cut.
Trump also owns the biggest single-day points drop in the history of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
CNBC explained, “The Fed on Tuesday slashed interest rates by half a percentage point in response to slower economic growth from the deadly coronavirus outbreak. After the move, markets began fluctuating, dipping into and out of negative territory, amid fears of a virus-related global slowdown.”
The president appears more concerned with the economy because it impacts his re-election chances than he is with people in the US dying from the virus. During a presser on the coronavirus during which he made sure to blame Democrats for the drop in the markets, Trump got the gender of the second Washington state patient to die from the virus wrong.
In case you’re wondering why the markets aren’t so calmed, Trump also bizarrely said, “And I think we have very good bipartisan spirit for money,” while claiming “tremendous success” – And again, we’ve had tremendous success — tremendous success beyond what people would have thought.” The President also claimed during that presser that Vice President Pence, whom he oddly placed in charge of the pandemic, is “really very expert at the field.” The only experience Pence has with viruses is enabling the spread of HIV in Indiana.
Trump thinks Democrats are rooting for his failure, but Democrats are busy trying to rescue Trump from his own failure once again, as they scramble to find ways to fill the massive holes he left in our pandemic response and prevention systems. The markets are responding to crisis, and the crisis could have been managed much better.
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