St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said the US is “certainty past the initial phase of the crisis”. But “the crisis is persistent”. He added that “we need better execution of a granular risk-based health policy, that will be critical to keep the economy out of depression.” His base case was that “we will be able to accomplish this in next six months and come back to a more normal looking U.S. economy,” even though downside risks “remain substantial.”
Bullard also noted that the stock markets were ” optimistic in the May-June time frame”. And “indeed the data came in and validated the market thinking.” “Equity markets are something we don’t usually talk about at the Fed. I think they have been optimistic and they have been right, I think, up to now anyway,” he added.
