MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle ranted about the difference between the actual economy and President Donald Trump's stock market.
Over the past weeks, since the coronavirus crisis began, the stock market has been bouncing like a basketball. At times, it closed after record spikes, the following days it dropped to record decreases.
She explained that Trump may be giving a wink and nod to the agriculture industry or oil companies, but it doesn't stop employees from dying if companies are opened back up.
"We're talking about life and death!" she exclaimed. "People are dying! Grocery store employees are dying! If he is mentioning this to people in the ag community -- if you run a farm, you cannot run the risk that people you have out there working have the virus. They're spreading it to someone else. This is very serious business. So, yes, the president is getting out there, talking up a big game. And it makes the market go up and it makes the market go down. But this is a perfect example of where the stock market and real-life and the real economy are two very different things."
She went on to explain that regardless of what the president says, the country is never going to have some kind of explosion of reopening.
"Let's be clear, 'Open for Business' is a sentiment, it's a sign," she explained. "It's not real life. This isn't a snow day. We're not going to decide a week from now or three weeks from now, alright trot back to work."
She went on to cite Singapore, which has responded swiftly to the crisis. When they let people go back to work, their numbers increased dramatically and they were primarily blue-collar workers who suffered the most.
"We're not going to go back to work until public health experts weigh in here," she said. "Until you have departments of health say where are we organizing the infrastructure to have wide-scale case testing? Where every person who is showing symptoms has someone from the health department go to their house, record their case, figure out who they spoke to, who they visited. That's how you address this. you have to do it in a public health policy way or we're going to be in worse shape than ever."
She explained that business leaders are not necessarily going to do whatever the president tells them what to do. She cited the NBA, who decided to shut down after players began to come down with the virus. It wasn't the president who made the decision to close down sports stadiums.
"So, when you look at the unemployment number, it's upsetting and jarring, but it also means that Americans are going home. Which is what we need them to do, and what the government needs to do is figure out how we're going to get whether it's PPP loans or unemployment benefits. How are we going to get them to the American people faster? Because I promise you, as you just said, people aren't getting the money they need. At least not yet."
Watch her comments below:
