Fed chairman: ‘It’s going to take a while for us to get back’

Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell said in an interview to be broadcast Sunday evening that “it’s going to take a while” for the U.S. to get back on its feet from the economic damage of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Powell told “60 Minutes” host Scott Pelley that he expects the economy to recover, but “it may take a period of time” that could last into 2021. 

“It’s going to take a while for us to get back,” he said in a preview clip shown on CBS’s “Face The Nation” Sunday morning. “But I would just say this: In the long run, and even in the medium run, you wouldn’t want to bet against the American economy.”

When asked if the economy could be restored without a vaccine, the chairman said he expects it to recover “steadily” in the second half of this year, “assuming there’s not a second wave of the coronavirus.”

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

Powell acknowledged that the pandemic has brought on a “time of great suffering and difficulty” for the American people, but encouraged optimism. 

“It’s come on us so quickly and with such force, that you really can’t put into words the pain people are feeling and the uncertainty they’re realizing,” he said.

Powell’s comments come as about 36.5 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits since the beginning of the pandemic, according to Labor Department statistics released last Thursday. 

The virus has infected more than 1.4 million people in the U.S., killing at least 88,898, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.