of resources. in addition to which the lack of ppe for them to do their jobs well. so, and sadness to those who lost their lives, and hope for those who are diagnosed, with respect to our heroes, let us be worthy of them by doing this in as nonpartisan away as possible. in that not be better regard. our distinguished whip, mr. clyburn. thank you all very much. reporter: we go live now to a briefing with federal reserve chair jerome powell. we join this event already in progress. section 13.3 of the federal reserve act, it requires we be secured to our

lendfaction, and we cannot insolvent companies -- it is clear these are lending bound to implement the laws that congress gives us. we can't make grants. that in my raised remarks is that i just want to be clear on that. ou know, we can do what we can do and we will do it to the absolute limit of those powers. it.l keep at and you -- i just want people to know that we will be at it with that we authorities have until we get through this thing. we will keep using our authorities. ut there are authorities that we don't have and there may be a need for those authorities to be used as well as ours. powell.hair it's heather long from "the

washington post." i have two questions for you. timing. do you plan to launch the corporate facility and main lending facilities in may, early may, anything you can timing?a sense on second in a statement you referred to the fmoca refers to medium term risks from the pandemic. think unds like you all this is going to be a long recovery, a long road to recovery. can you give us guidance on how you see this recovery taking shape? powell: sure. the facilities, the corporate facilities are near being operating,nd will be i would say, soon, fairly soon. facility is -- we're close to announcing to issuing a sheet.m as you know we put out a term sheet for comment a while back thousand a couple comments. we carefully study them. we tried to reflect those in

now.we're doing i think with main street, there different ouple of kinds of lending going on this. is a broad area of the economy with many different kinds of credit needs so we're for some eep at that time, i think adding in sectors and lending products. at -- we'll be probably be continuing to work and expand main street for some time. be done quite as quickly, but the first part i think will be done fairly quickly. of our statement -- so what we said was that we -- i'll sentence.the ongoing public health crisis d near term and poses onsiderable risks over the medium term. what we mean by the medium term, not we're talking about is right now in the very near term. t's between now and the long term. the next year or so. i'd point to a couple of risks

outlook what we were of.king first, just the virus. how long will it take to get it under control? be other outbreaks? ill there be drugs or a vaccine? everything is shrouded in uncertainty. the second issue -- and this is one -- is tantial of damage ssibility to the productive capacity of the economy. through a couple of channels. is workers. if one is unemployment for an person can iod, the lose the skills that are needed, lose touch with the labor force restarting ficulty his or her career. that's a feature of deep and long recessions. got to 's something we watch out for. another is just businesses. ou know, these thousands of great medium and small-sized businesses we have all over the

country, they're worth so much the economy than the sum of their net assets. they're job -- creators. they're really important. if we see an unnecessary -- wave ssary insolvency, a of those, that could be damaging to the performance of the time.y over the good news is we have policies, as i mentioned in my remarks, we have policies that things.ess those but not perfectly. so that's another risk. to third thing i would point is just the global dimension. none s a very global if i none and we're -- phenomenon, economic data g from around the globe which is very, very negative and that, on u.s. economic performance over time. u.s. -- on on the the u.s. economy, there are things you can say. say -- the first in the near term we're going to see, you know, significant declines economic activity, significant declines in employment, increases in

unemployment. to see that as a consequence of the virus and the measures we're taking to protect it.elves from the next phases are more uncertain, highly uncertain, but we will go through a phase starting fairly soon where we economy.reopen the probably the economic activity will pick up, as consumer up.ding picks consumer spending has gone down quite a lot. as people start to return to their normal patterns of spending. but the chances are that it go right back to where we were because people will, until that the virusnt is well and truly under control, hen they will be somewhat probably reluctant to undertake certain kinds of activity. us to take some time for get back. it probably will take some time more to get back to a normal level of unemployment and maximum y the

unemployment. james. james: thanks, chair powell. you didn't firm up your guidance on -- this is james from "the financial times". your guidancem up on interest rates. iven the things you outlined, under what circumstances would you strengthen the fed's commitment to keep rates at the bound? is there any danger to delaying that pledge? what credit facility, kind of demand are you expecting for the programs that were set under the cares act and are you expecting them to rapidly like the p.p.p. did? chair powell: first, as i mentioned, we moved very quickly, very aggressively. first to return to effective lower bound, where we are now. there essentially right away. we think that's the right place to be. if you look atsur vase. if you -- if you look at

if you look at market prices, they expect us to be while.or a it's not as though the market is offering a lift off that. to me say, we are not going e any hurry to wait and lift off. we'll wait until we're confident the economy is well on the road to recovery. see our current stance, our current guidance, and i would thing with asset purchases. we see them as appropriate. i've also mentioned now a couple a lot oft we have done thinking about what monetary olicy might look like overcoming months and that would, you know, depend on where range of potential economic scenarios. all re thinking about that the time, but right now for now we think our current stance is appropriate. made no change in it

today. question was -- the thing facilities is treasury of equity.lenty so we've said that if demand for facilities is greater than we'll stimated, then expand them and we have the ability to do that. the way the paycheck protection program is where specific amount allocated, appropriated for it, and then there's no more money. that will be unlikely to happen unless we exhaust treasury's we are a long way from doing that. the second thing i would say, we ve seen that, when announced these facilities, i mentioned this in my remarks, it's not just the actual lending we do. the -- we build confidence in the market. market participants come in and many companies that would have to come to the fed have now

to finance themselves privately since we announced the sheet on these facilities. so that's a good thing. companies are out there financi financing. they're out there raising liquidity. we have not made any corporate facilities.se we made the short-term money market loans, but we haven't them.ny of there's a tremendous amount of financing going on and that's a good thing. or that reason, the ultimate demand for the facilities is uite difficult to predict because there is this announcement effect that really gets the market functioning again. to follow we have through, though, and we will ollow through to validate that announcement effect. howard schneider. howard: hi, chair powell, and thanks for doing this. to get your expansion on timing of recovery and the the health etween response. you said earlier, i think you of the yearond half

could be a robust rebound. question?w out of the do you think a steady recovery is possible until a vaccine's patchwork given the of measures we see taken around he states, is that going to vaccine?o -- absent a chair powell: as you know, economic forecasts are un-serb. they're -- uncertain. today they're usually uncertain because so much of the of the economy depends on the path of the virus and the measures we take to ontrol it, our success in reopening the economy and also the time it takes to develop new drugs. we do tools, the things don't affect any of those things. we're not experts on those things either. the experts tell us is the outcomes are highly uncertain. is an unusual new kind of uncertainty added on top of our regular uncertainty. i will say, i think there are a few things you can say about the

ahead. first, this time now is going to sharp contraction in economic activity, high nemployment, personal consumption expenditures have declined sharply. investment as well. unemployment moved up. we're going to see economic data for the second quarter that's any data we've seen for the economy and they are a of the onsequence disease and the measures we're taking to protect ourselves from. hen, we'll enter this new phase, and we'll -- we're just eginning to do that where formal measures that require social distancing will be rolled gradually and at different paces and at different parts of country. in time this -- during this period, the economy will begin to recover. their will come out of homes, start to spend again. we'll see unemployment go down. we'll see economic activity pick up. and, you know, when will that

be? say.very hard to let's say for this purpose that it's in the third quarter. earlier, that could be a fairly, you know, large increase. size of the fall, the increase could also be substantially large. unlikely it would bring us quickly, quickly all he way back to precrisis levels. of course, this is the period as well that carries the risks of new outbreaks of the virus, really want to avoid. i think then, after that period, will have, youou know, the kind of formal social istancing measures will be gone. but you'll still be left with probably a level of caution on who will f people worry and probably keep worrying for some time. you would think behavioral change, as people gain confidence. we get the virus under control, the sooner people that confidence and regain their economic activity.

think trying to be precise when that might happen and what he numbers might look like, i think it's very tough to do that. steve matthews. teve: steve matthews with bloomberg. chairman powell, you noted a number of times over the last ear that there's been a broadening out of job gains with people ized workers, have been left out of the ecovery over the 10-year period. finally making job gains and particularly minorities but also workers.r do you worry that this recession hardest on fall those workers who struggled and in the last gains year or two and that it may take now before there are opportunities for them again? powell: yes, that's about. what i worry

so unemployment has tended to go p much faster for minorities and for others who tend to be at he low end of the income spectrum and it tends to come down faster as well but it tends to go up faster and be much, higher. and we were in a place only two well into --e were beginning the second half of the we were. is where every reason to think it was ngoing, we were hearing from minority -- low and moderate income and minority incomes that market wee best labor have seen in their lifetime. all the data supported that as well. frankly, to aking, see that all threatened now. need for our urgent response and also that of ongress, which has been urgent and large, to do what we can to run damage to the economy which is what i earlier.

exogenous event. it happened to us. it wasn't because there was omething wrong with the economy. i think it is -- it is important can to do everything we avoid that longer run damage and try to get back to where we were i do very much have that concern. think everyone is suffering here, but i think those who are least able to bear it are the are losing their jobs and losing their incomes and little cushion to protect times like that. o, yes, that's a very big concern. >> victoria. hi.oria: victoria with "politico". the paycheck protection program experienced logistical problems because of the speed of which this is happening.

or the main street lending facilities, which will also work through banks, what lessons are that?king away from and then, more broadly, you this year, rlier nsustainable task, and i was wondering for republicans that are starting to get worried how much fiscal spending they're crisis, you in this know, whether that should be a concern for them? powell: so a couple things. from the fferent p.p.p., paycheck protection ways.m, in two one, these are not grants. these are loans. so i don't know that the demand quite as strong as it has been for the p.p.p. that.t know and the second thing is, we won't run out of money. pot.not a limited so there won't be this incentive to try to get there first and thing.rt of i'm hopeful we will very much

to learn as much as possible from that facility and from all the other ones, too. we have a lot to learn here. we'll certainly be trying to do that. terms of fiscal concerns -- for many years, i've been -- the bed, i have long time een an advocate for the need for the united states to return to a sustainable path, from a perspective at the federal level. we have not been on such a path for sometime which just means is growing faster than the economy. this is not the time to act on concerns. this is the time to use the great fiscal power of the united do what we can to support the economy and try to et through this with as little damage to the longer run productive capacity of the economy as possible. again, and l come, reasonably soon, i think, where we can -- where we can think long-term way to get our fiscal house in order and we

absolutely need to do that. is not the time to be -- in my personal view, this the time to let that concern, which is a very serious in ern, but to let that get the way of us winning this really. >> edward lawrence. chairman.ank you, mr. fox bissonette work. given the stimulus on the side, how much weight from clearing the uncertainty you talked about on treatment and whatnot for the reserve pulling back on some of the fed's actions and zero g the rates from the lower bound? also, when does that main treet -- lending facility get deployed? you talk about soon. now.businesses are in need thank you. chair powell: you know, so we we're not in position

a reliable know, assessment on when a vaccine or a therapeutic drug will be ready. to set our going policies based on our estimate of that. going to just provide the support that we can with the tools that we have. and we're going to keep doing until the recovery is well under way. street, so, you know the sorry. we put our term sheet. a lot of comments. we took those very much to heart. time nt a great deal of here. it's a challenging space because it's many different kinds of borrowers. have different needs, different sizes of companies, and so we're -- as i mentioned, close to announcing a new term sheet which will then quickly.erative fairly my guess is we'll keep looking to add products and add ifferent kinds of borrowers to that as we go. we're well aware of the importance of doing it as possible. we hear -- you know, we're very

with the urgency of that need. ok. lee. don: it's don lee from "l.a. times." of ow-up on the question labor market." i know you said it's highly there are those hat think we'll have very high unemployment even until the end of next year, high as 9%. this point, can you talk a you e bit about more what see the path of employment in the coming months into next year? so unemployment is going to go up to a high number second quarter. ncertain what the number will be. when and that's because so much economic activity has been as we take eally, measures.tancing

and so sometime fairly soon here gradually and at different paces, different parts of the country, we'll see the social distancing measures back. people will begin to spend more money. it's really consumer spending fallen precipitously. and once that starts to p had a, be -- happen, people will be hired back. will get to the numbers, 3.5%.w it will take some time for that us to resemble maximum employment. e want to get back on that road. we want to get that recovery going and get people back to as we can.t not faster than we can, but as fast as we can. thing is to get into that stage where the economy is healing, where we have the where we der control, don't, you know, take too much

isk of second and third waves and that sort of thing and get people back to work. it know, again, the path of but we willcertain, be this with our -- be there with our tools supporting our supporting that -- supporting our economy and supporting that recovery. scott. scott: thanks, mr. chairman. crisis, e financial banks were instructed to up their capital so they can shock. an economic what kind of steps do you think economy o take for the at large to make it more kind of shock?is chair powell: you're a little volume. scott: yes. what kind of steps could we take o help the economy as a whole be more resilient to this kind shock? chair powell: this is an

xtraordinary, extraordinary shock. unlike anything certainly that's lifetime.n my and a couple things come to mind. a hink the time for come for careful assessment of the answers to those questions. them.arly to be asking we're still putting out the fire. we're still trying to win. at that for a e while. but i point to a couple directions. hard to we worked strengthen the banks. much higher levels of capital, greater sense of what the risks are, they're them.g and how to manage so the breakdowns that we've seen in market function have in the capital markets. in with ldn't rush regulation into the capital markets. we did plenty of things. a lot of reform in the capital markets. money market reform. reform. central clearing. all these important things. with ere will no doubt be

this -- the size and force of reveal ck will no doubt weaknesses in the financial market architecture and we have to go to work on those. think it tells you the importance of getting your order.house in the u.s. really hadn't -- really gotten back to where we policy.o get on fiscal you know, we haven't already -- have a high level of debt to g.d.p. and rising quickly when this shock arrived. the fiscal capacity to deal with it, i believe. ut we will need to -- ideally, you'd go into an unexpected hock like this with a much posture.fiscal

mike mckey. the mr. chairman, given demand drop, demand shock and he drop in oil prices, do you anticipate we might see any kind short ation even for a period that would require a fed response? negative print on c.p.i. or c.p.e., how should about that? second, there is a disconnect, t appears, between the markets and the economic outlook right now. i know you said this isn't the about moral hazard. do you worry with the size of stimulus that you and the into the re putting economy, there could be financial stability problems as along?es chair powell: so, in terms of think that e inflation is very closely and inflation lated to expectations. and during the global financial

there was a concern we might see deflation but it didn't happen. tended to move down a little bit as it will when weak. is but inflation expectations did not move strongly down here in the united states. other places in the world, though, over the past 25 years. pressure en down-ward on inflation really for several decades now. as inflations long expectations remain anchored, then we shouldn't see deflation. reserve is ral strongly committed to aintaining 2% inflation over time. so we'll be there to work on that. i think you ask really about inflation, if low energy prices, very low energy to drop, e to -- were eadline inflation negative, i would hope people would see through that and will be carefully.it look to core, a better predictor

of future inflation. needless to say, we'll keep very close track of that. terms of the markets, our concern is that they be working. not focused we're on the level of asset prices, in particular. to just markets are trying price in something that's so to be unknowable, which is the path of this virus effect on the s economy. and that's very, very hard to do. that's why you see volatility it's been. market reacting to things with a volatility. but, you know, what we're trying the sure, really, is that market is working. the market is assessing risks. lenders are lending. lending. borrowers are borrowing. assets are moving in response to events. that's important for everybody. including, you know, the most among us because if markets stop working and credit you see -- g, then

that's when you see, you know, ery sharp negative, even more negative economic outcomes. so i think our measures have market function pretty well. ou know, we're going to stay very careful -- carefully monitoring that. to see markets working again. particularly the flow of credit n the economy has been a positive thing as businesses have been able to build up their liquidity buffers and households have been able to be home. people have been home. concerned about their jobs but the re not concerned about financial system collapsing as 2009.ere in 2008 and >> ok. a.p. from the chris: hi, chair powell. chris from the a.p. thank you. i have two questions. i wanted to start on the unemployment picture and nail down a little bit how you see -- you see things going from here. ou did talk about potential

loss of skills over time. so are you worried about job mark changes in markets that would keep nemployment high and therefore potentially beyond the ability of the fed to do anything about, is something was debated, you know, after the last recession and then eventually, course, the unemployment rate people ower than what thought. just on the money from treasury, the $454 billion. want to keepke you that in reserve for programs that have high demand such as the main street am practice. willing to -- main street program. backstop thatg to for losses? of loss our definition in terms of that $454 billion? in terms of so, the risk to --t, of damage to people's skills and

isir careers and their lives a function of time to some extent. unemployed,r one is the harder it gets, i think. and we've probably all seen this in our lives. harder it is to get back into to workforce and get back where you were, if you ever get back to where you were. deeper downturns have had -- have left more of a mark, dimension in that with the labor force. that's why, as i mentioned, the urgency doing what we can to prevent that longer run damage. to be that way. we won't be able to limit all of it, but we have the tools to do in we can to keep people touch of the with labor force, working. insolvency too. it doesn't seem fair people should lose everything they including their homes, over this. so nonetheless, there will be of that. we do have some teal to emeal

that. o in terms of the money, you it's a e $454 billion, couple things. treasury secretary really has authority over that. of our tands in front losses. so i do think we are -- we're into areas where there is more risk than there has been in the past. ok.that's i think that's what we're supposed to do. this is a very unusual time. in terms of the way to think about that money, i think that's a question for the treasury department. you know, we are -- we set up very,cilities and we work very closely and successfully and collaboratively with the this, but that particular aspect of it falls

secretary. >> ok. e'll go to nancy for the last question. nancy: nancy with marketplace. powell, i'm wondering what you would say to savers who are low interest rates and maybe going into investments, maybe in the stock for them,n't so great and also wondering if you can ive us a clue how long you think we'll have interest rates near zero? powell: so we think low interest rates affect the conomy through a number of channels in a positive way. lower interest rates support through activity channels -- overall through channels we understand reasonably well. cheaper to borrow. they drive your cost of down.ing they do raise asset prices including the value of your

home. has a home or saver our -- 401-k, your will benefit from that. for people just relying on their account earnings, this is -- that's -- you're not to benefit from low interest rates. but we -- you know, we have to look out for the overall economy. interest rates support employment. they support economic activity. mandates.our i think for the overall good of the economy, low interest rates thing.ood and not to say they're good for every single person, but that us from doing what we think is good for the whole. low, i don't w want to speculate. we will turn to questions like enough.n but the -- in terms of how long we'll stay and under what we'll stay at the effective lower bound, those are things we're thinking about. place ow, we like the where we are. we said we'll keep our rates where they are until we're

onfident that the economy has weathered the effects of the outbreak and is on track to goals. our so that's where we are. we're not changing that guidance today. but it will be -- that means we're going to be very patient. going to be e not in any hurry to move rates up. >> thank you very much. chair powell: thanks. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] programming later today from the states and their pandemic response, including a conference with kentucky govern governor. that's live at 5:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span. "washington journal primetime", edition of ening "washington journal" on the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. are -- a clinical psychologist and president of

he anxiety and depression association of america. joining us to talk about in d-19 and mental health the u.s. of those directly and ndirectly affected by the disease. then, head of the international umanitarian group, partners in health, will be on to talk about the scope of the pandemic in developing nations. also joining the program, pennsylvania republican congressman dan meuser talks how the coronavirus pandemic has been felt in his district. tonight atnversation 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> oh, yea, all persons having usiness before the honorable the supreme court of the united states admonish and give their attention. the court is now sitting. >> for the first time in supreme hear the u.s. court live. in may, due to the coronavirus

andemic, the court is hearing by arguments in 10 cases teleconference. c-span will provide coverage. first up on monday at 10:00 a.m. eastern, the justices hear the case of u.s. patent and rademark office vs. booking.com. the case concerns the travel company's fight to trademark its website. be a part of history and listen to the supreme court oral arguments as they're heard by justices. live monday at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. demand at c-span.org or listen on the free c-span radio app. mike secretary of state pompeo briefs reporters. he says that the state department continues to work governments around the world to combat the coronavirus pandemic. says is about what he disinformation coming from the chinese government and their cooperation sharing coronavirus