US economy could take a real hit due to coronavirus panic – editorial director of research institute tells Boom Bust

Five trillion dollars were wiped out of the stock market last week amid the Covid-19 panic, marking the worst collapse for global equities since the 2008 financial crisis.

RT’s Boom Bust speaks with Jefferey Tucker from the American Institute for Economic Research to find out if the chaos is justified.

“I don’t think that markets are lying; I think fears are real… and whole sectors of the global economy are coming under serious pressure right now,” he says.

According to Tucker, for average people the effects of coronavirus are going to be much more impactful from the economic point of view than from the health point of view.

There’s a real supply and demand shock, he says, pointing out that talks about Federal Reserve intervention and new fiscal stimulus are “all nonsense because the velocity of money is going to come under extreme pressure.” There’s nothing that the Fed could really do, he adds.

“It’s very possible that the first quarter GDP in the United States is going to take a real serious hit, and we could even see some effect on the unemployment numbers,” Tucker says.

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