Minneapolis Federal Bank Head Kashkari: Fear A Major Factor In Economic Decline
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The leader of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve says fear is a major factor to declining consumer activity.
Neel Kashkari spoke with John Dickerson on "Face the Nation" this morning. This week, we learned COVID-19 led to the worst quarterly economic report ever recorded. The second quarter U.S. gross domestic product plunged a record 32.9%.
Dickerson asked Kashkari about that.
"The thing that surprised me the most, economically, we knew the GDP would be very low with 20 million Americans still out of work. You know, the economy is reeling. There's one bright spot that I saw, though. The U.S. personal savings rate has taken off. Before the crisis, it was around 8%. Now it's around 20%," Kashkari said.
Kashkari also says he projects if the U.S. economy can grow, the country will be able to pay off its trillions of deficit spending.