Mnuchin Talks Resilience as Markets Implode

March 10, 2020 (EIRNS)—At the March 9 daily White House COVID-19 briefing, Black Monday for the stock markets, Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin was asked to respond to a question regarding the possibility of a recession given the spread of the novel coronavirus and the collapse of the stock market in the last few days.

Blaming the market chaos on the drastic fall in oil prices, Mnuchin said, “We couldn’t be more pleased that coming into the situation with the coronavirus, the U.S. has the most resilient economy in the world.” He also assured his audience that the President has at his disposal all the tools he needs to deal with the crisis. The tools he mentions are tax cuts, regulatory relief and trade, “which have put the economy in a very good position,” he says.

Mnuchin admitted that, obviously people will get hurt from the crisis, namely the workers. For those, he promised a program to help those who were laid off or quarantined and money would be made available for small businesses. “This is not like the financial crisis where we don’t know the end in sight,” Mnuchin insists. “This is about providing proper tools and liquidity to get through the next few months.” Just a slight glitch in an otherwise perfect system.