ABSTRACT
This chapter will describe the liquidity programs created by the Federal Reserve Board that helped stabilize and restore financial markets to their pre-pandemic levels. It relates how the Trump administration worked with Congress to enact legislation that funded massive relief programs, which provided assistance to millions of workers and their employers. Although that legislation, and the liquidity provided by the Fed, brought the economy out of recession in record time, it also caused the already massive federal deficit to balloon even further. This chapter also traces the economic and financial effects of the government business lockdowns. It focuses particularly on the industries most affected by those orders, including food services, retail sales, travel and leisure businesses, healthcare and delivery services. There were both winners and losers in those categories.
