David Swenson, associate scientist, talked with Michael Crumb, Des Moines Business Record, for a May 15 story, "Coping with Covid-19: Uncertainty surrounds economic recovery from coronavirus pandemic."
"We’re going to learn more about it as we move through, but expectations are for a very depressed job market for several quarters -- three, four, maybe five quarters before we work our way out of this. Unemployment is expected to be up and stay up for much of this year … so the next few months is going to give us some insights into what to expect as we get into the third and fourth quarter and then into next year."
In a May 21 Quad-City Times story, "Watch now: Farmers remain optimistic as planting season winds down."
Dave Swenson, an economist and professor at Iowa State University, said the $16 billion is for the entire country and it is too early to know how much of that financial relief will go to Iowa farmers.
“This is a program that nicely extends to all farmers," Swenson said. "For the most part, government programs really specialize in assisting commodity crops so in this case it really broadens the base of assistance than what was oftentimes the case in previous legislation. It is not targeted to any specific sector.”