International investor Barry Sternlicht supports President Donald Trump’s desire to get America working again soon.
Trump is “kind of right” that the U.S. economy can’t remain virtually shut down forever because of the coronavirus, the founder of investment firm Starwood Capital Group Management told CNBC.
“We don’t have enough money to fix” the economy if it were to die, Sternlicht warned.
Delivering a message of hope and optimism, Trump on Monday said the administration is talking to doctors in the coming days before potentially considering opening back up some areas of the United States to get the economy going again, despite the global coronavirus pandemic.
"Our country wasn't built to be shut down," Trump told reporters Monday at the daily white house coronavirus task force briefing, urging hope for the U.S. to "get back to work" in areas health experts advise can resume business.
"We're not going to let to the cure to be worse than the problem," Trump said.
Meanwhile, Sternlicht said he’s “just as bullish” as he was earlier this month when he was optimistic about a fast recovery by the stock market once the worst of the outbreak passes.
“We are using this [market volatility] as buying opportunities in the public markets,” he said at the time, adding he saw a “V-shaped almost for sure” bounce for the market, meaning a quick down and a quick back up.
However, he did warn then that the market and the economy could get “really bad” before they get better.
Sternlicht last week told Bloomberg Television that the fallout from the coronavirus outbreak will feel "like World War III" for 90 days but the situation is not as dire as what is being reported.
For his part. Trump said he will not allow the coronavirus to do long-lasting damage to the U.S. economy and he would consider how to move forward after a 15-day shutdown ends next week.
"America will again and soon be open for business, very soon," Trump said. "A lot sooner than three or four months," he said.
"This is a medical problem. We are not going to let it turn into a long-lasting financial problem."
Trump said if the economy is forced into a deep enough recession by social distancing measures, there could be deaths from suicides and other causes in excess of those caused by the coronavirus.
"I'm not looking at months, I can tell you right now," he said. "We're going to be opening up our country. Can't keep it closed for the next, you know, for years. This is going away."
Parts of the nation might be able to resume economic activity even as others fight outbreaks, he said.
"We can start thinking about, as an example, parts of our country are very lightly affected," he said.
"We can do two things at one time," he said. "Our country has learned a lot. We've learned about social distancing, we've learned about the hands."
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