Fed chief Jerome Powell calls for more coronavirus stimulus spending

Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell on Tuesday called for more government spending to support the nation’s nascent economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

Both the central bank and Congress should continue their aggressive efforts to shore up the economy even though employment, consumer spending and other key measures have rebounded from their collapse in the spring, Powell argued in a virtual speech to the National Association for Business Economics.

The risks of policymakers “overdoing it” with stimulus are fairly small, Powell said, but providing too little support would weaken the recovery by leading to more bankruptcies, hurting productivity and choking wage growth.