Federal Reserve

"These businesses cannot wait two or three months," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said during a hearing before the Senate Banking Committee, urging lawmakers to put as much as $300 billion ...

She argued that canceling federal student loan debt is the "single most effective stimulus that is available through executive action."

"It remains difficult to assess the timing and scope of the economic implications of these developments with any degree of confidence."

In his letter to Powell, Mnuchin said that in the "unlikely event" that the lending programs are again needed, the Fed can request the Treasury to re-establish them with funding ...

The expectations were based on a rule that has shaped decades of monetary policy decisions.

"It looks like the data are pointing to a slowing in the pace of the recovery."

In a statement, the central bank said it was cutting rates by to a target range of 0% to 0.25%.

"The room available for conventional rate cuts is much smaller than in the past."