Orman reassured viewers that the economy will recover and their bank accounts are safe. She also advised worried investors and pensioners how to act sensibly during this time and that there is no need to panic.
However, Orman did not sugarcoat her thinking about the inadequacy of the stimulus checks nor the deep doo-doo of our financial crisis:
Unemployment is almost impossible to get for many people, depending on your state regulations. And even though you've applied for unemployment doesn't mean that you're necessarily going to get it. So we are really in a situation where the people who need the money the most in my opinion still aren't going to have it, so we have a personal financial crisis here, if you're asking me, like none that we've ever seen before, Ali, even when we went through this in 2008. ... That was nowhere near as bad as it is right now.
Orman was especially critical of the credit card companies and credit bureaus. She called on each to do their part: credit card companies should lower interest rates to 0% during this time and credit bureaus should “absolutely not” decrease credit scores.
So at a time when people don't have the money to pay their bills, they need more credit, is the exact time that these credit bureaus are dinging our credit scores, which makes it almost impossible for us then to get more credit on credit cards, to get a good interest rate, to do the things that we need.
The good news, not mentioned here, is that Sen. Kamala Harris is publicly demanding those same consumer protections.
