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Fox News and Fox Business anchor Neil Cavuto said on “America’s Newsroom” on Wednesday that the idea that the U.S. economy will “just spring forward” once businesses reopen after they were forced to shut down in an attempt to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus is probably "very wrong.”
Cavuto made the comments responding to a Reuters report that global business leaders are preparing for a drawn-out U-shaped recession due to the impact of coronavirus with many fearing their companies won't survive the pandemic.
THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK, STATE-BY-STATE
Around 60 percent of chief executives are preparing for a U-shaped recovery, which is a long period between a recession and an acceleration, the report said, citing an April 15-19 poll of 3,534 chief executives from more than 100 countries conducted by YPO, a business leadership network.
The pandemic sweeping the world has killed more than 179,000 people, overwhelmed financial markets and could trigger the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
Cavuto said he has “concerns and doubts” about a quick economic recovery, explaining that V-shaped recoveries, which signal an economic snapback, “are very hard to produce.”
“Most of my original concerns were more psychological than anything else,” Cavuto said, explaining why a V-shaped recovery is unlikely. “When people do sort of crawl back to work here, there won't be as many crawling back and it's going to be staggered.”
He noted that “psychologically a lot of people are going to be leery of crowded settings, theaters, restaurants, even their office place, even with staggered distance in effect.”
Cavuto said "that alone” is a sign that it “could take a while” to recover.
He also pointed out that “people who’ve been burned” who were “going without paychecks” or weren’t generating any business when the economy was essentially shut down because of the outbreak are “going to be very leery of piling on the spending” once the economy reopens.
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Cavuto added that he has “no doubt there will be a recovery,” but said it will likely be slow and steady.
“I hope it's going to be steady, but this idea that we could just spring forward here is probably wrong, very wrong,” he said.