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“ ‘I think definitely you’re looking at a very strong third quarter, a very strong fourth quarter and probably a great next year. So I guess I disagree that it’s going to take all the way through the end of 2021.’ ”
That’s White House senior adviser Kevin Hassett taking exception in a CNBC interview Monday with Fed Chairman Jerome Powell on how long it’ll take for the U.S. economy to regain its footing.
Hassett suggested that economic activity across the country may have “bottomed out about the 11th or 12th of April,” adding that “the question is not really, when does the recovery start, because absent a second wave of the disease, it’s kind of already begun.”
Powell struck a much more cautious tone on the timeline in an interview on “60 Minutes” a day earlier, saying a vaccine may be needed before we see a full recovery.
“We’ll get through this. It may take a while. It may take a period of time. It could stretch through the end of next year. We really don’t know,” Powell explained. “We hope that it will be shorter than that.”
Watch the full interview:
Optimism was clearly reflected in the stock market during Monday’s upbeat session, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +3.47% , S&P 500 Index SPX, +3.04% and technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite COMP, +2.34% all logging strong gains.
Hassett made headlines a week ago when he said that “it is scary to go to work,” after White House workers, including the president’s personal valet, tested positive for coronavirus. He pointed out that the West Wing is “a small, crowded place,” and “it’s a little bit risky” to work there.
