How Fast Will the Economy Recover From COVID-19?

Apparently my old workplace has been deemed nonessential. Sad.Kevin Drum

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How quickly will the American economy recover after the COVID-19 pandemic is over? That depends on a whole lot of things:

  • Will it really be over in a couple of months? Or will small outbreaks keep springing up here and there?
  • Will there be another big outbreak in the fall?
  • Will there be a widespread outbreak in the southern hemisphere later this year?
  • How quickly will our trading partners in Europe recover? And Asia?
  • How soon will people return to their old spending habits?
  • Will we provide the right kind of rescue and stimulus spending?

That’s a lot of unknowns. I’ve been pretty solidly on the side of believing that the economy can bounce back fairly quickly from the pandemic, but the more I read about new outbreaks in Asia; pandemic spread in the southern hemisphere; northern European unwillingness to help their poorer neighbors; and so forth—the more I read about this stuff, the less confident I become.

I have no strong new opinion to share here. I’m just acknowledging that this is a question that depends on a whole lot of unknowns.

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“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

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