Claudia Sahm on Direct Payments to Individuals and Other Policy Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis

Claudia Sahm is the Director of Macroeconomic Policy at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth and formerly was a section chief at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Claudia specializes in macroeconomics and household finance, and joins the show today to talk about what the Fed has recently done and what fiscal policy can do in response to the economic meltdown caused by COVID-19. Specifically, David and Claudia discuss sending out direct payments to individuals, what the Fed’s remaining toolkit may look like, and how the freshly minted Sahm Rule may be of paramount importance as this crisis continues to develop.    Transcript for the episode can be found here: https://www.mercatus.org/bridge/tags/macro-musings   Claudia’s Twitter: @Claudia_Sahm Claudia’s Equitable Growth profile: https://equitablegrowth.org/people/claudia-sahm/   Related Links:   *The Case for a Big Coronavirus Stimulus* by Jason Furman  https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-case-for-a-big-coronavirus-stimulus-11583448500?mod=rsswn   *Go Big Or Go Home* by Tim Duy https://blogs.uoregon.edu/timduyfedwatch/2020/03/16/go-big-or-go-home/   *COVID-19 Pandemic, Direct Cash Transfers, and the Federal Reserve* by David Beckworth https://www.mercatus.org/publications/monetary-policy/covid-19-pandemic-direct-cash-transfers-and-federal-reserve   David’s Twitter: @DavidBeckworth David’s Blog: http://macromarketmusings.blogspot.com/