Good morning from the Financial Times.

Today is Wednesday, March 18th,

and this is your FT news briefing.

Western governments have mounted a multi trillion dollar

blitz to limit the economic fallout from the coronavirus.

F.T.'s Rana Ferruhar will walk us through what the proposed measures might mean for Wall Street

and for Main Street. Plus, the plant-based meat startup Impossible Foods raised hundreds of millions of dollars

despite volatile financial markets and Joe Biden solidified his front-runner status

to take on Donald Trump in November. I'm Mark

Filipino and here's the news you need to start your day.

U.S. and European stocks rallied on Tuesday. This was after Western governments from the White House to the Lisei to 10 Downing Street pledged trillions of dollars to help with the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

The Trump administration alone proposed a $1.2 trillion stimulus package to Congress.

This was on top of two smaller pieces of legislation.

Between the three plans Americans could see, among other things,

guaranteed paid sick leave, funding for coronavirus testing,

and even checks sent directly to citizens.

Meanwhile, some of the largest economies in and around Europe

announced plans to prop up business and protect households yesterday.

Britain, for one, unveiled a 330 billion-pound package of emergency business loan

guarantees and 20 billion pounds of fiscal support.

On the central bank front, the Federal Reserve launched additional crisis measures to shore up financial markets.

Showing how seriously it's taking the situation, the U.S. Central Bank revived a credit facility for approved

...