Trump’s $2 Trillion Idea for Infrastructure Is a Good Start
Once the pandemic passes, fixing roads and bridges would give the economy the lift it will need.
What better time?
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/BloombergU.S. employment continues to collapse, with a shocking 6.65 million new jobless claims reported yesterday. The Federal Reserve has predicted that the unemployment rate could reach 32% -- considerably higher than at the depths of the Great Depression. Much of the U.S. economy is based on local services and with people across the entire nation confined to their homes because of the pandemic, that huge chunk of the economy is simply closed for business.
That doesn’t mean it’s time to let people come out. New cases of coronavirus are still soaring. If stay-at-home orders are lifted before the caseload shrinks, and before testing and contact-tracing systems are in place to suppress new outbreaks, the virus will come roaring back, panic will spread, shutdowns will be reinstated and the economic damage will be even greater.