Comments from the Richmond Fed President:
- Spending on goods is up more than spending on services
- Predicting the economy now is harder because of virus and fiscal/political uncertainty
- The higher the case rate the higher the economic uncertainty
- Jobless claims remain stubbornly high
- Many small businesses are resizing now and want to be prudent heading into the fall
- You have to imagine improvements in the labor market are going to slow
This is the narrative that Fed speakers have been weaving for awhile but they emphasize that confidence is low.
