If the Federal Reserve’s surprise Sunday evening announcement of sweeping efforts to guard the economy from coronavirus reminded you of the 2008 global financial crisis, you’re not alone. In that episode, policymakers’ tendency to make surprise weekend announcements became a running joke. But the similarities between the Fed then and now go deeper than the timing of news conferences. Think of what the Fed did over the weekend this way: It resurrected most of its aggressive, unconventional and extraordinary policies used to combat the global financial crisis. The Fed is taking a “whatever it takes” approach to a crisis, using multiple tools at once — and the ones that matter most may not turn out to be the ones that end up in the headlines.

Source: New York Times March 16, 2020 00:56 UTC