, Columnist
Best Coronavirus Response? QE Plus Infrastructure Spending
One would help now, the other in the long run.
Do both.
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The economic threat from the coronavirus pandemic is profound. Stocks have plunged, oil prices have tumbled, the entire yield curve has fallen below 1% for the first time in history, and the country may already be in recession.
Boosting the economy will be difficult, because macroeconomic theory and policy are not set up to deal with pandemics. The U.S. economy hasn’t been rocked by a major disease outbreak for more than a century; instead, recessions have come from oil shocks, interest-rate increases or financial crises.