US needs more ‘helicopter money’ to cushion coronavirus impact - hedge fund investor Scaramucci

CNBC reports that the U.S. needs more "helicopter money" to help its economy recover from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, said Anthony Scaramucci, a hedge fund investor who briefly served as President Donald Trump's White House communications chief.

Helicopter money refers to a last resort type of monetary stimulus, which involves printing large sums of money and distributing it to the public to encourage people to spend more and thus, boost the economy.

"I think they need to put up more helicopter money," Scaramucci, founder and co-managing partner of Skybridge Capital, told CNBC.

He added that his firm's calculations showed that each adult should get $3,000 and each child $1,500. That would be more than the $1,200 and $500, respectively, already announced as part of a $2 trillion fiscal stimulus package.

In addition to fiscal measures, the U.S. Federal Reserve has cut interest rates close to zero and pledged to purchase assets "in the amounts needed." Those are moves that have injected a lot of money into the economy, said Scaramucci.

"The Fed has injected in the last three weeks about $1 trillion dollars," he said.

That has helped investors to become more bullish, Scaramucci said, adding it could pave the way for financial markets to recover from here on.