SLOW AND STEADY

Fed Chief: Hasty Reopenings Will Only Cause More Economic Damage

Jerome Powell said that the U.S. could well be on the verge of an economic boom—but only if it manages to emerge from the pandemic.

The nation’s top central banker has warned that the worst thing that could happen to the U.S. economy at this stage of the pandemic is if businesses reopen too quickly and fuel another nationwide surge in coronavirus cases. Speaking in a 60 Minutes interview broadcast Sunday night, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that the U.S. could well be on the verge of an economic boom if it manages to emerge from the pandemic. “We feel like we’re at a place where the economy’s about to start growing much more quickly and job creation coming in much more quickly,” he said. “The outlook has brightened substantially.” However, he said all of that could be jeopardized if mass business reopenings cause another wave of COVID-19 infections. “There really are risks out there,” he said. “And the principal one just is that we will reopen too quickly, people will too quickly return to their old practices, and we’ll see another spike in cases.”