Coronavirus fallout could be 'worse than the financial crisis,' expert warns

Scott Minerd, Guggenheim Partners' global CIO, has a dire warning about the fallout of the coronavirus crisis: it could potentially be "worse than the financial crisis."

Minerd told Axios as much on Friday after the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Thursday plunged 1,191 points, the worst one-day point drop ever.

Amid what's set to be the worst week for the stock market since the financial crisis, former Federal Reserve official Kevin Warsh penned a Wall Street Journal piece recently joining the call for the Fed to take action. Specifically, Warsh wrote the Fed should "announce a 0.25-percentage-point interest-rate cut and make clear it's open-minded about further action," as well as "encourage other central banks to take appropriate simultaneous action to loosen monetary policy in their jurisdictions."

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Minerd, who is a member of the the New York Fed's investor advisory committee, told Axios he expects a statement about "some sort of monetary coordination." But he suggested that this, unfortunately, is unlikely to help that much.

"You can cut rates and that helps alleviate some of the problem," he told Axios. "But with a shock like this, monetary policy is pretty impotent. Cutting rates 100 basis points isn't going to do anything."

Minerd previously spoke to CNN on Thursday, warning that "we are just beginning to see the sell-off." On Friday morning, the Dow was down 800 points.