President Trump Remains Optimistic Over Economy Reopening After COVID-19 Crisis

Monday, the president called his top economic advisors together to talk about moving the economy forward through so-called “opportunity zones.” 

It came as Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said a major factor for a rebounding economy would be the development of a successful coronavirus vaccine. Powell added that while he doesn’t see a second great depression ahead, the country won’t economically bounce back quickly. 

Still, President Trump is optimistic. 

“This is a very big day,” he said. “This feels much different than Friday, Friday has a very different feeling from today this is a very positive day.”

The president’s meeting with top economic advisers struck an encouraging tone. It comes in the wake of blunt comments from the Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

“For the economy to fully recover people will have to be fully confident and that may have to await the arrival of a vaccine,” Powell said. 

Powell said economists must look at the current recession differently than ever before.

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“Take care of the medical so the economic data can recover," Powell said. "The real-time economic data that we’re seeing is just a function of how successful the social distancing measures are."

Monday, drugmaker Moderna, reported its experimental vaccine-induced immune responses in some volunteers. It added the company’s vaccine could be ready for emergency use as early as the fall if it works safely in subsequent testing. 

The Food and Drug Administration also recently gave Moderna permission to begin the second stage of testing, which could put it on track to create a public vaccine by the end of the year.

The president tweeted, “Doing really well, medically, on solving the coronavirus situation (plague!) t will happen!”

But even if the frantic paced development is successful, Powell has a warning.

“We won’t get back to where we were quickly,” Powell said. “We won’t get back to where we were by the end of the year, it’s not likely to happen.”

Powell believes the economy will shrink in the second quarter about 30 percent. Still, he’s optimistic there we’ll see signs of a rebound in the second half of the year. This comes after the Labor Department reported last week that more than 35 million Americans have sought help for unemployment because of the pandemic.