Ralph Cole, CFA, Director, Equity Strategy and Portfolio Management, Ferguson Wellma

Cole discusses the Gross Domestic Product report that was announced Thursday morning,

Has effected many american's and our economy.

Today's newswatch 12's ana orsini got the lastest for an economic outlook.

New reports released today showed a record 32.9% drop in gross domestic product.

But worst quarter in more than 70 year quarterly reports that the gdp has been compiled.

Now, joining us now is ralph cole with ferguson wellman.

Thanks for being with us.

Oh, happy to do it.

Tell us a little bit about this report and how significant it is to the u s economy.

Well, when you start thinking about it in the first quarter, we're moving along and just at the end of the first quarter, the coronavirus hit and the shutdowns hit.

And then by the second quarter, they were in full effect and our economy was really brought to its knees.

As people were forced to stay at home.

What does it tell you that we're seeing worse numbers now than we were seeing, you know, a couple of years back during our kind of recession in 2007 to 2009, is that concerning to you?

Yeah.

What, what really happened is you compressed it in just a very short period of time, starting in february all the way through june.

And so it took two or three years of what a recession normally is and scrunched it into four months.

So it made it very dramatic and very steep.

Now, when coronavirus first started and round february, did you think that this would happen?

Could you have predicted this.

We did not predict this.

You know, we thought that hopefully we could get it under control as quickly as they didn't china.

But obviously that wasn't the case.

And we had to do things for longer period of time and, and each state having its own control kind of caused some problems with it.

Now, do you think that another stimulus check would help relieve this problem and kind of stimulate the us economy right now?

Yeah, i think it's really important.

I think one of the reasons the market's down today's congress and the president are having trouble getting their deal done, but we're about to run out of benefits here on july 30.

First, those extra benefits for the unemployed, people are going to need the money.

There's 17 million on continuing on unemployment.

They're going to need that doll, those dollars.

And i think they're coming now.

How long do you think it will be before we see more steady growth in the economy?

So the strange part is now that we've dug this hole, we're starting to dig our way out and we think we're going to have positive gdp growth.

Just this quarter here in the third quarter of 10 to 15%.

Now that's a long way to go.

We will not be back to even until the end of 2021 or the beginning of 2022.

Now for the everyday american looking at this, they may not understand the numbers civically, but know that yes.

What's going on.

Yeah, the us economy right now.

Isn't great.

How can people help?

How can they stimulate the economy?

Well, i, my heart goes out to those small businesses.

Obviously a lot of us have been shopping on amazon and doing things online.

I think your local restaurants need takeout.

I think your local niche retailers need people coming to see them.

I think it's those small businesses they're struggling the most during these times find a way to support them.

Find a way to do it safely.

And find a way to do it consistently because we want them around at the end of this and to those small business owners.

What do you say to them today when you see numbers like this?

I say the worst is behind you.

You have to be very creative during these times to get through to the other side.

And we've already seen it with restaurants, building porches outside using their parking lots for outside dining, be creative.

If you're a retailer, find ways to have people order online and deliver a curbside, do the things the big guys are doing so that you can keep moving and keep growing really great advice.

Thank you for being with us this afternoon, ralph call.

I really appreciate it.

Thank you for having me.

Absolutely.

Have a good one.

You too.

On cominf up a live update we will have scene.

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