Sitting calmly in front of a bookshelf filled with thick volumes of the "Federal Reserve Bulletin," Jerome Powell this week set out to offer a simple explanation for the complicated steps the U.S. central bank is taking to relieve dire stresses in the global financial system.

"Many places in the capital markets, which support borrowing by households and businesses — I'm talking about mortgages and car loans and things like that — have just stopped working," the Fed chair told NBC's "Today" show, in a rare television interview. "So we can step in and replace that lending under our emergency lending powers."

Powell's typical mild-mannered delivery belied the historic actions under way to put out various fires raging in the financial system because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. The system is still far away from normal, and troubling stress points remain. However, this week it became clear that the rapid response alleviated a variety of issues that threatened to exacerbate economic damage being inflicted by attempts to halt the spread of the virus.