White House and Fed at Odds Over Crisis

Washington Post: “As he concluded meetings in Saudi Arabia on Feb. 23, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell sent urgent emails to his staff about the coronavirus. The outbreak was escalating in South Korea, Italy and Iran, and the central bank needed to intensify its response to the economic shock.”

“While Fed economists began to run through scenarios of what could go wrong, senior White House officials both privately and publicly maintained that there was virtually no reason for concern. On Feb. 25, as Powell began meeting with staff to prepare contingency plans, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the U.S. had an almost ‘airtight’ containment on the outbreak, a day after urging investors to ‘buy these dips’ in the stock market.”