Michael R. Strain, Columnist

A Seven-Point Checklist for Reopening the Economy

There will be setbacks, and Congress has to commit to propping up the economy over the long term.

April 14, 2020 at 3:30 PM UTC

Michael R. Strain is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is director of economic policy studies and Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the author of “The American Dream Is Not Dead: (But Populism Could Kill It).”

Lifting soon.
Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images North America

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Despite the rapidly growing damage to the economy, workers and people’s emotional well-being, surveys have shown a high degree of popular support for the coronavirus lockdown. Patience is limited, however, and public sentiment could turn on a dime, particularly as the economic toll deepens. The political right, concerned about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, will clamor even louder to get back to normal life.

President Donald Trump’s council for planning the reopening of the economy has disappointed many for not going heavy on public-health experts or research and business economists. More and more governors are taking the lead, annoying Trump, who claims that only he has the authority to decide when the lockdowns end. For all this intrigue, the U.S. has nothing close to a concrete economic strategy for moving forward, and it needs one.