Powell Says COVID-19 Policy is Most Important Economic Policy We Have

Last Q: You said the economy had proven more resilient than expected due to adaptability of households/businesses. Are there adaptations that surprised you, remote working etc?

- A: Financial markets for example, everybody had to go home and take their terminals with them. There was concern there would be a major loss of functionality, but it worked out OK. We have definitely learned we can do more work from home in many different lines of work. That's not possible in some personal services industry though.

Also, when we saw the wave of cases this summer in the South and West, we expected there to be a significant hit to econ activity and people "just kind of got on with their lives and dealt with it". Then the fall wave was much larger, look at the December jobs report. If you look elsewhere, it's not having an effect, like in PMIs, in Housing.

You're just going to have to beat the pandemic. I would urge that getting everyone vaccinated, getting people wearing masks... Are the most important economic growth policy we can have.

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