General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSteven Mnuchin Swears He's Not Tanking the Economy Just to F--k Over Joe Biden
Something youre probably aware of by now, unless you live in a cave or exclusively get your news from @realDonaldTrump and his big boy sons, is that theres a very contagious disease ravaging the globe that is not just killing more than a million people but jobs and businesses as well. Jobs, for the lazy rich who are unaware, are how people buy stuff like food and pay for things like shelter. So losing them is bad; less bad if you live in a society where the government actually cares about people and doesnt just say, tough shit, thems the breaks, when you lose one, and more bad if you live in, for example, the United States of America. The current Treasury secretary presumably knows this and, yet, hes apparently hoping to make a bad situation even worse!
On Thursday, Steven Mnuchin said that he doesnt plan to extend a number of key emergency lending programs beyond the end of the year, asking the Federal Reserve to return the money supporting them to the Treasury. While the programs expire at the end of 2020, investors had expected them to continue without interruption, given that COVID-19 is spiraling out of control and continues to pose major economic risks. As The New York Times reports, the pandemic-era programs...have provided an important backstop that has calmed critical markets since the coronavirus took hold in March, and removing them could leave significant corners of the financial world vulnerable to the type of volatility that cascaded through the system as virus fears mounted in the spring. And while any Joe Bidenappointed Treasury secretary would likely restart them immediately, Mnuchins move would significantly delay doing so. In a rare critical statement, the Federal Reserve said it would prefer that the full suite of emergency facilities established during the coronavirus pandemic continue to serve their important role as a backstop for our still-strained and vulnerable economy, which is Fed-speak for Bitch, the fuck is wrong with you? The economy is hanging on by a thread here!
Per the Times:
With coronavirus cases on the rise, the economy may sour again, making the programs more necessary. As recently as Tuesday, [Fed chair Jerome] Powell warned of the potential for economic scarring and said that the economic recovery had a long way to go.
Mnuchin, of course, is one of Donald Trumps most devoted lackeys and Trump would obviously love nothing more than to choke the economy to death right before his successor takes over. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce denounced the move, with Neil Bradley, the groups executive vice president, saying, a surprise termination of the Federal Reserves emergency liquidity program, including the Main Street Lending Program, prematurely and unnecessarily ties the hands of the incoming administration and closes the door on important liquidity options for businesses at a time when they need them most. As the Associated Press notes, many progressive economists have argued that, with the election of Biden, a Democratic-led Treasury could support the Fed taking on more risk and making more loans to small and mid-sized businesses and cash-strapped cities under these programs. That would provide at least one avenue for the Biden administration to provide stimulus without going through Congress. Stimulus that, for some reason, Mitch McConnell is in no hurry to get out to struggling Americans.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/11/steven-mnuchin-joe-biden-economy
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)down the credit-support programs they mostly closed the spigot on before Democrats can use them to address the national emergency, especially for small businesses. Some $450 billion they've refused to use would revert to congress.