Fed chair has clear grasp of economic challengers: WSJ's Greg Ip

CNBC's Kelly Evans breaks down monetary policy moves by the Federal Reserve with Greg Ip of the Wall Street Journal.

On Thursday, April 9, the market learned that the economy was even worse than most had thought, as the Labor Department reported that another 6.6 million Americans had joined the ranks of the jobless. That meant that in just a three-week period, more than 16 million Americans, or 10% of the workforce had been sent to the unemployment line.

To the naked eye, it looked like the U.S. economy was in free fall and with no hope of avoiding a downturn that would rival the Great Depression.

The Federal Reserve, though, had other ideas.

At literally the same minute the government released the jobless claims data, the Fed had an announcement of its own — a series of programs aimed at big and smaller business alike as well as households and governments representing an unprecedented $2.3 trillion in economic stimulus.

The programs were far and away bigger than anything the central bank attempted during the financial crisis, and were announced in much less time than the 2008-09 efforts.

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