Coronavirus Debt Isn’t as Scary as Government Bungling
Borrowing to battle the pandemic is manageable as long as the U.S. is well-run. There’s no guarantee it will be.
With the right leadership, debt doesn’t have to be a problem.
Photographer: Al Drago/BloombergThe coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic depression are going to require huge amounts of government spending. Government is devoting resources to halting the outbreak. It’s sustaining businesses during shutdowns so that they don’t have to be rebuilt from scratch. It’s paying the bills for workers who've lost their jobs. It’s bailing out state and local governments whose tax revenues are disappearing and can't finance budget deficits. And it’s taking on much of the debt from the financial system to ensure that a banking crisis doesn’t follow the pandemic.
All of these efforts are necessary. But add them all up, and they’re going to leave the U.S. federal government with a lot of debt: