How to Pause the Economy and Avoid Ruin

“The coronavirus has produced something new in economic history. Never before have governments tried to put swaths of national economies in an induced coma, artificially maintain their vital organs, and awaken them gradually,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Some past societies, such as medieval Europe, abandoned economic activities as people tried to escape plagues, and suffered heavy disruptions to their social order. In other pandemics, such as the flu of 1918, economic interactions continued with only limited quarantine measures, as authorities accepted contagion and deaths as the price of continuity.”

“Today, many nations are more willing—or feel more able—to try to have it both ways. Their hope is to press pause on the economy, save lives, and then press play again. If it works cleanly, it will be a testament to the flexibility of modern capitalism and the ingenuity of modern government. More likely, much will go wrong.”