Business

The new group comes as the president has expressed his eagerness for several weeks now to shake the country from its self-imposed social and economic lockdown, though medical experts have warned that resuming business as usual before the virus is under control and widespread diagnostic measures can be implemented could have dire consequences. Trump indicated Friday that the new group would look further than reviving the sputtering economy. “This is beyond economic,” he explained. “This is really, I call it the ‘opening our country task force’ or ‘opening our country council’ so we don’t get it confused with Mike’s task force, which has done so great. And we’re going to have the great business leaders, great doctors, we’re going to have a great group of people.” In keeping with ...

Markets aren’t infallible, and sometimes their read on the situation is wrong. But often when they’re wrong, they skew toward pessimism, reacting quickly and aggressively to negative news or even the hint of it. At the end of 2018, for instance, stocks plummeted 20 percent or more based on the fear, unfounded, that rising interest rates would cripple activity. It’s often been said, derisively, that Wall Street has correctly predicted nine of the past five recessions. In the past few weeks, however, finance-land has flipped that script and is reflecting substantial optimism. What’s going on? Usually market moves are at least partly in sync with real-world problems. When global markets teetered in the fall of 2011, it was because of legitimate concerns that Greece was about to leave or be fo...

While banks have said they have been unable to send money to small business borrowers amid the chaos, Kudlow said there were “$50 billion in loan commitments” and 178,000 loans being processed. “If the demand is that high, which I would regard as a good thing because we just want to get folks through this tough period, why not ask for more money?” he said. The Treasury Department late Monday released new guidance in response to mounting questions from banks about how to issue the loans. The situation surrounding the small business rescue underscores the confusion coming from Washington about how to protect Americans during the outbreak and shore up an economy that has been forced to go into lockdown and shed millions of jobs. On another matter, Kudlow said he was un...

Though the ballooning economic destruction is largely being induced by the government’s efforts to combat the virus, consumers’ outlook for the economy is rapidly darkening as the virus claims more lives and shuts down a broad swath of the country. The growing number of job losses has been a central focus as Congress considers further injections of funds into the economy and as the Fed deliberates more ways to ensure that households and businesses can stay afloat until the pandemic is brought under control — a timeline that is anyone’s guess. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged more than 1,600 points, or 7.7 percent, on data suggesting that the spread of the coronavirus may have begun to slow, but that was based on very limited information, and it is still unclear when the number...

Dimon, who just returned to work after emergency heart surgery, took a veiled swipe at the Trump administration and other U.S. leaders for failing to prepare for the outbreak. He said the pandemic “is only one example of the bad planning and management that have hurt our country.” “Sometimes extraordinary events in history can cause a change in the body politic,” he said. “As a nation, we were clearly not equipped for this global pandemic, and the consequences have been devastating. But it is forcing us to work together, and it is improving civility and reminding us that we all live on one planet. E Pluribus Unum.” As Washington looks at ways to ease banking rules to encourage further lending, Dimon said “we want our shareholders to know that we ha...

The left flank is increasing pressure on Joe Biden, the party’s likely nominee, to adopt more progressive economic policies. Activists accuse Trump of prioritizing corporate America over low-wage workers, while many moderate Democrats are leery of drawing such distinctions, training their criticism of Trump solely on his initial mishandling of the pandemic. “This is not just about saying, ‘Trump is not doing a good job,’” said Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a prominent supporter of Bernie Sanders, who remains in the presidential race. “That is absolutely a piece of it, but it’s also about, what are you going to do? What is your vision? … We should be talking about a payroll guarantee, like a bold pay payroll guarantee program, we should be talking about canceling student debt. I me...