Powell and Mnuchin voice optimism but back more economic aid

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin expressed cautious optimism that the U.S. economy is rebounding from the pandemic-induced recession with federal support but that more help from the government is likely needed. Powell told the House Financial Services Committee that he believed the economy was “healing.” Mnuchin, the chief economic spokesman for the Trump administration, proclaimed that the country was in the “midst of the fastest economic recovery from any crisis in history” after the steepest plunge since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Striking a more cautious note, Powell noted that the job market has regained only about half the 22 million jobs that were lost in March and April.