U.S.—Unemployment has skyrocketed, with 10 million filing for unemployment in the past two weeks. Stocks have plummeted. Growth is expected to be negative with a recession looming. While there could be many reasons for this, economists all agree on one factor that most likely contributed: the pandemic that has forced everyone to stay home and thousands of businesses to close.
A new study has confirmed their findings, suggesting that there may be a link between the government shutting down the economy and everybody losing their jobs.
“We can’t discount the actions of President Trump fumbling the great economy he was handed by Obama,” said economist Brent Paul. “And many point out this could be from a fatal flaw of capitalism. I mean, if capitalism is so good, then why are bad things happening? Also, it’s possible the complete shutdown of the economy due to the pandemic could be contributing as well.”
“We also can’t discount monetary policy,” added economist Christine Howard. “And Trump’s reckless tweeting can affect some businesses. Also, the way the government has forced everyone to stay home and not work is likely to affect profits.”
Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman was more skeptical. “This really just seems like something that’s all Trump’s fault,” he said. “I don’t get all this blame-shifting. Still, I guess theoretically -- theoretically -- a pandemic grinding all the nation’s business to a halt could have some negative economic effects.”
Economists aren’t sure what could turn the economy around, though most think it would probably have to do with not having a pandemic.