A severe coronavirus epidemic in the US could demand an expansion of the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing powers to include purchases of a wider set of assets, Boston Fed president Eric Rosengren said in a March 6 speech.

If the coronavirus leads the Fed to cut rates to the zero lower bound and pushes the 10-year Treasury yield close to zero, Congress should grant the Fed the ability to purchase a new set of assets as part of QE, Rosengren said.

Under this scenario, “there would be little